As the former chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that in her role serving as the chair of the planning board, over the course of 18 consecutive years and a board member for 28 years, Joan Philkill attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Grammatical Construction

• A comma cannot join two independent clauses; such usage leads to the error of comma splice; to correct this error, the comma must be replaced with a semicolon or comma followed by a conjunction such as "and", "but" etc.

A: Trap. This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "As the former...28 years"; the inclusion of the adjective "former" illogically implies that Joan Philkill attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications in her role serving as the former chair of the planning board; the intended meaning is that Joan Philkill attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications in her role serving as the active chair of the planning board.

B: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "The former...28 years"; the omission of the word "As" incorrectly implies that Joan Philkill is the former chair of the planning board, and as a separate action attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications; the intended meaning is that Joan Philkill is the former chair of the planning board, and while serving in that role she attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications.

C: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "Former...28 years"; the omission of the word "As" incorrectly implies that Joan Philkill is the former chair of the planning board, and as a separate action attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications; the intended meaning is that Joan Philkill is the former chair of the planning board, and while serving in that role she attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications.

D: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "She was...28 years"; the omission of the word "As" incorrectly implies that Joan Philkill is the former chair of the planning board, and as a separate action attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications; the intended meaning is that Joan Philkill is the former chair of the planning board, and while serving in that role she attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications. Further, Option D incorrectly uses a comma to join the independent clauses "She was...for 28 years" and "Joan Philkill attended...applications"; please remember, a comma cannot join two independent clauses; such usage leads to the error of comma splice; to correct this error, the comma must be replaced with semicolon or comma followed by a conjunction such as "and", "but" etc.

E: This answer choice uses the phrase "As the chair of the planning board...28 years", conveying the intended meaning - that Joan Philkill is the former chair of the planning board, and while serving in that role she attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications. Further, Option E correctly uses a comma to join the independent clause "As the chair...for 28 years" and "Joan Philkill attended...applications".

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Comma Splices" and "Run-ons" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~6 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

I did not pick up B because, I think if we use 'The former chair' , the sentence should be :

the former chair of the planning board..and a former board member

IMO (E),
The logical meaning of the sentence talks about the past event. "chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and a board member for 28 years". "Former" here sounds redundant. What is OA?

I actually don't think former is redundant. Former is an adjective here.

Former means that the person is no longer an active chair member.

Without the former, (As the chair) - it gives the meaning that the person is still currently part of the board.

Where did this question come from? argh.

Very diff Q.

@BFH,

Why would some one attend meetings as former chair ?

E is my answer

I don't think it's saying that a former chair is currently attending meetings.

This is my interpretation:
When the former is used, the meaning of the sentence is exact:
- The action has taken in the past, and the member is no longer part of the board.

When the former is not used, it gives the 2 meanings, either that:
1. The action has taken in the past, and the member is no longer part of the board nor attends the meetings.
OR
2. the action has taken in the past, BUT can continue into the future, and member is still part of the board.

I don't agree that the intent of the sentence was to infer #2 above, therefore, that's why I thought former was necessary and not redundant.

Many of you are mentioning the meaning as a primary reason for one choice or another--try to avoid meaning issues until you have first eliminated choices with grammar problems.

Those of you advocating C, take a close look at the comma found later in the sentence. What is it's role? Try to label the words around that comma with their roles (e.g. subject, verb, modifier (type? of what?), etc.)

Are you trying to say that C would have been correct if the sentence were:
As the former chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and a board member for 28 years, Joan Philkill , attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications.

That leaves us with D and i know i have heard such structures as
A eminent physicist and an orator,Mr X has gone to win the nooble prize in 1989.etc
Could this be such a case????

By adding that comma after the name Joan Philkill, you seem to have caught my meaning. Without that comma, "J.P. attended...meeting and reviewed...applications" is the main clause of the sentence. That implies that the stuff before the comma in the sentence as written must be a modifier. In turn, that implies that the correct choice uses "as," creating an adverbial modifier. (Jade3--nice catch on this!)

If we were free to add that comma after Joan Philkill, then the name/person would be a noun modifier, and the sentence outside of the commas would be the main clause. In that case, (B) comes close to correct grammar, though I still think the modifiers "for 18 consec years" and "for 28 years" are awkward.

(B)/(C) would require multiple edits to work: The former (move: planning board) chair (cut: for 18 consecutive years) and (cut: a) board member (cut: for 28 years), Joan Philkill, attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications.


(D) is not exactly like this example, because (D) begins "She was" = Subject Verb, which is not a modifying phrase, but rather an independent clause. "An eminent physicist and an orator" is a noun modifier.

While Joan P. was the former head, the way the sentence reads makes it sound like she was the former head for 18 years. During this time she served as the head of the committee not the former head. Therefore, you can get rid of A, B, and C. D represents a comma splice so (E) it is.

First look: modifier, grammatical construction -- How should the former chair be modified?

A. As the former Wrong - incorrect "former" because Joan was the chair for 18 years, not the former chair for 18 years.
B. The former Wrong - Opening modifier changed from clause to appositive phrase, though "former" is incorrect for the same reasoning above.
C. Former Wrong - same as above.
D. She was Wrong - She was..., Joan Philkill is a comma splice; one cannot join two sentences with merely a comma.
E. As the Best choice

IMO E

I think this is the best explanation. An easy way to see the illogical nature of A is to truncate the extra parts of the sentence:

As the former X and a Y, JP did Z in the past

vs.

As the X and a Y, JP did Z in the past


I think it's confusing because something like this is actually correct:

In her former roles as the chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and a board member or 28 years, Joan Philkill attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications.

Now "former" is part of a adverbial prep phrase at the start is modifying the action "attended"

MikeScarn, GMATNinja, GMATNinjaTwo, hazelnut, generis please confirm highlighted!

GMATNinja AndrewN sir

Please give your opinion between B and E.

Both seems correct grammatically.

I choose B because i wanted to keep the original meaning. means he attended in the past when he was former.
e.g. The former president xxx, DT did xyz.

Hello, imSKR. We have undoubtedly talked about this before, but the intended meaning of the sentence can only be gleaned through the non-underlined portion. The original sentence in its entirety does not necessarily express that intended meaning. You should be reading this sentence in the following manner:

[underline] chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and a board member for 28 years, Joan Philkill attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications.

To be honest, the appositive phrase could stand on its own, without additional words, but as soon as we add something, we want that something to add clarity to the sentence as a whole. I will avoid stepping on others' toes and offering a recapitulation, but notice, too, that the opening phrase gives us a hint in the form of and. When used in this capacity, without commas, we should be looking at parallel entities, X and Y. The part after and does not say former board member. Of the options listed, (E), As the, provides the clearest lead in—as in this sense means when she was. (Joan is a female name.) If anything, choice (C) should make you question the validity of (B), since the is implied in such a restrictive appositive phrase, as in, [The] Legendary boxer Muhammad Ali died in 2016.

I hope that helps. Thank you for thinking to ask me.

- Andrew

hello AndrewN sir

I have reached to the right answer. But I have 3 queries pending:

1 But it may not be necessary because she could be former chair but not former board member( 10 years extra as board member)

2. if number of years were not given then we could have chosen B?( my basis of rejecting B was, she can't be former for xx number of year)
The former chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and a board member for 28 years, Joan Philkill attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning
applications.


3. Sir, I am not clear on this. Do you mean "Former" is much better than "The former" in this case?
3b. "As the former" is better or "As former "?
3c. "The" represents specifically she was one of the member? Without the or using a , it would sense in general.
Please share some thoughts on using " the" when the subject is not used at other place in the sentence( e.g. only used in appositive phrase as in given question )
As the former deputy chairperson , she was yy. the deputy chairperson is a specific position so use the ? - correct?
As a female, she was very proactive physically . a here refers in general- correct?

Wow, imSKR, I did not mean to open this can of worms. Nevertheless, I will respond in-line below.


The verb after the comma is conjugated into the simple past, attended, so we understand that Joan Philkill's stint as a board member was also in the past. Otherwise, we would expect the verb to be has attended.


No, (B) would still be sub-optimal; its meaning could use a bit of clarity. For instance, the following version would be better: As a board member and a one-time chair of the planning board, Joan Philkill... In your proposed sentence, I still want as at the beginning. I would not write either of the following standalone sentences:

a) The former chair of the planning board, Joan Philkill attended...

b) A board member, Joan Philkill attended...

In both cases, an extra comma after the name would help add clarity to the sentence. (The name would be less important than the titles and the action of attending something.)


No, not much better. I am saying that they basically say the same thing. Whether you write The former chair... or Former chair..., you are setting up the same sentence, grammatically, in this sort of sentence. The article adds nothing essential to the mix.


Nope, not what I was saying. And where did as suddenly come from?


I have no problem with the two sentences you have written above. Yes, the is more restrictive than a/an. But how did we get here in a discussion on an underlined portion of no more than three words? What happened to keeping matters simple? What it comes down to really is that former is problematic in (A) through (C), while (D) creates a grammatically unsound sentence, one that leads to a comma splice. Choice (E) is clear and concise, the best of the lot. Pat yourself on the back for answering correctly and get this one out of your system.

Apologies for the confusion. I can assure you that was not my intention.

- Andrew

Thanks for your patience Sir in answering all queries.
The warms have been killed. I am pretty clear now including new doubts that were raised.