Despite the criticism in the early 1890’s that if journalists use

That's an impressive review of this problem! The tense issue is the big problem in A/B here both within the clause, use/would and use/will, and in the sentence as a whole, present tense "use" where "used" is required. D and E both have a modifier problem because "of the..." is modifying 1890s instead of criticism. Also, D contains the word "being", which is almost never used correctly on the GMAT.

KW
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Nope.

When form "the past" you make a prediction looking forward, "would" is correct; so B is out.

In A, the conditional clause is not correct even if you add a comma. The correct form is

"if + simple Past, + would", A uses the present "use", so even with the comma both A and B are not correct.

In this question, the IF-then construct isn't correct in option A and B its missing a comma? Can we eliminate the answer choice because of that issue?

GMAC doesnt tests on PUNCTUATION...so never eliminate a choice on the basis of punctuation.

Despite the criticism in the early 1890’s that if journalists use pictures the intellectual quality of publications would diminish, by the late 1890’s photographs were found in most newspapers and magazines.

(A) that if journalists use pictures the intellectual quality of publications would diminish,
Parallelism not maintained. That clause is followed by an if-clause, which i think is a wrong construction.
(B) that if journalists use pictures it will diminish the intellectual quality of publications,
placeholder 'it' has no proper antecendent. Parallelism not maintained (both tense and construction)
(C) that the use of pictures by journalists would diminish the intellectual quality of publications,
Parallelism perfectly maintained between "the use of pictures" and "photographs" and also between the verbs
(D) of the intellectual quality of publications being diminished by the use of pictures by journalists,
too many errors in this construction. It is not direct. Usage of "by the use of pictures by journalists" conveys a wrong meaning. Usage of 'being' is not needed.
(E) of the use of pictures by journalists diminish the intellectual quality of publications
SV agreement error. Use should be followed by diminishes. 'Use of pictures by journalists' conveys a different meaning.

Despite the criticism in the early 1890’s that if journalists use pictures the intellectual quality of publications would diminish, by the late 1890’s photographs were found in most newspapers and magazines.

(A) that if journalists use pictures the intellectual quality of publications would diminish,
IMO : THAT IF construction is fine. That + (clause)
Problem with A is hypothetical subjunctive form of then statement is used without past form of verb in if statement. -- I rejected A because of this reason.

(B) that if journalists use pictures it will diminish the intellectual quality of publications, -- it is trying to express idea rather it should refer to some noun. further there is no proper antecedent of it.

(C) that the use of pictures by journalists would diminish the intellectual quality of publications, -- good.

(D) of the intellectual quality of publications being diminished by the use of pictures by journalists, -- criticism of ... being -- wrong

(E) of the use of pictures by journalists diminish the intellectual quality of publications -- fragmented -- verb is not expected in such construction.

The event is from the past so future tense does not work here, B is out. conditional "would" is used with present verb form "use", which is incorrect so A is out. D is just wordy. in E "diminishing" incorrectly modifies journalist.

@ someone from GMAT CLUB

D says: Despite the criticism in the early 1890’s of the intellectual quality of publications... That is incorrect, because criticism was not about the intellectual quality of publications; criticism was about the use of pictures.


I didn't notice diminishing in E. E says: Despite the criticism in the early 1890’s of the use of pictures by journalists diminish the intellectual quality of publications. The issue is that despite is a proposition and so, cannot be followed by a main verb; however here, diminish is used as a main verb. This makes the sentence ungrammatical.
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Dear RichaChampion,
I'm happy to respond.

First of all, I totally agree that the present tense of "use" in (A) & (B) is train-wreck wrong. All this is in the past.

Here's what I would say about conditions. For the first one, the "likely" case, it's perfect try that we use simple present and simple future if the condition is a present-time condition, but we have to change tense if we are talking about a condition in the past.
Present time:
In the US today, if a person refuses to pay his income tax, he will be arrested and thrown in jail.
That's factually true, not only likely but just about certain. Here, we use simple present tense in the first part, simple future in the second.

Now, a past event. The US has had income tax continually since the passage of the XVI amendment in 1913, but it was only sporadic in the 1800s. The use no longer has poll taxes, but it did in the past. Thus we could say
In the 1840s, if a person refused to pay his poll tax, he would be arrested and thrown in jail.
Not only was this 100% true at the time, but it actually happened to Thoreau. Here, we use the simple past in the first part, and the "would" construction in the second part. You see, among other things, the construction "would" + [verb] is used to indicate the future of the past, the future from a past frame of reference. This is also the case in sequence of tenses. Answer choice (C) is correct, and it's closer to a sequence of tenses construction.

Does all this make sense?
Mike
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Despite some criticism that sth would have bad consequences, it happened.

Despite the criticism in the early 1890’s that

if journalists use pictures
the intellectual quality of publications would diminish,
by the late 1890’s photographs were found in most newspapers and magazines.

............intended meaning is usage of pictures would diminish the quality.

(A) that if journalists use pictures the intellectual quality of publications would diminish,............this does not give intended meaning. the stricture is without proper link.

(B) that if journalists use pictures it will diminish the intellectual quality of publications,.............it does not have proper antecedent usage.

(C) that the use of pictures by journalists would diminish the intellectual quality of publications,............use would diminish quality correctly.

(D) of the intellectual quality of publications being diminished by the use of pictures by journalists,............criticism of quality doesn't make sense.

(E) of the use of pictures by journalists diminish the intellectual quality of publications,............criticism of use of pics doesn't make sense.

HI GMATNinja, MagooshExpert (Carolyn), GMATGuruNY, AjiteshArun, generis,

In the above two options, what is the role of use. in terms of noun & verb. What makes A incorrect and C as Correct?
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Hi NandishSS!

In option A, "use" is a verb, in the context "the criticism that if journalists use pictures then X". In option C, "use" is a noun, as in "the use of pictures". In the first case, when "use" is a verb, it is in the present tense, which doesn't make sense in this context. But if it is a noun, as in the second case, then there's no "tense" or timeframe implied, which is why it's correct here. See Mike's response above for a more detailed explanation of why A is wrong

Hope that helps!
-Carolyn
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Never use "would" in the same line of "If" sentence. Hence, eliminate A & B, ans is C.

I think all are giving strange reasoning for elimination .

I have the use of IF THEN clause . So let me put my POE.

First I feel you should know how to use IF THEN .

IF + present tense , THEN + simple present tense (is) / future tense (maybe ,will be)
IF + past tense , THEN + simple past tense(was) / WOULD (to show uncertainty)
IF + past perfect tense (HAD+VERB), THEN + would have

ABOVE ALL CONDITIONAL WOULD - If you see uncertainty ,HYPOTHETICAL CONDITION ,assumption.

Now lets begin POE.

"alchemist009"]Despite the criticism in the early 1890’s that if journalists use pictures the intellectual quality of publications would diminish, by the late 1890’s photographs were found in most newspapers and magazines.


(A) that if journalists use pictures the intellectual quality of publications would diminish, (use - simple present tense+ would IS WRONG , so eliminate . WE KNOW THE SECOND CLAUSE IS IN PAST .)

(B) that if journalists use pictures it will diminish the intellectual quality of publications, (use + will is fine as per grammar point of view but WHAT IS "IT" referring to ? moreover the focus is on use of pictures by journalists not if journalists use, so it has little meaning error too. )

(C) that the use of pictures by journalists would diminish the intellectual quality of publications, (now there is no IF so I can easily use CONDITIONAL WOULD logic as the second clause is in past)

(D) of the intellectual quality of publications being diminished by the use of pictures by journalists, (official explanation -preposition of and by are confusing )

(E) of the use of pictures by journalists diminish the intellectual quality of publications,(official explanation - complete nonsensical and misplacement of journalists diminish ...)

Can we cross out option B, because "it" has no reference?"it" does not have proper antecedent usage. Expert your input...

Posted from my mobile device

Very nice observation Abhishek.

Good job.
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Why is it wrong to use it in this sentence? Would it not imply:
(B) that if journalists use pictures [the usage of pictures] will diminish the intellectual quality of publications,

Although the answer choice has other flaws.

If I understand you correctly, you are suggesting that it refers to the phrase the usage of pictures.

The issue however is that the phrase the usage of pictures is not even present in the sentence! So, how can "it" (a pronoun) refer to a non-existent noun-phrase? This is a fundamental violation of what the pronouns are supposed to do!

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses the usage of pronoun "it", its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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sub 600? seems like a lot of discussion on it (I thought A, didn't see this use-would relationship). Surprised this isn't at least 600 - 700.