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605-655 Level|   Grammatical/Rhetorical Construction|   Modifiers|   Parallelism|   Parallelism|                     
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 18 Feb 2014, 10:12
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Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumbering her letters to anyone else.

(A) Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumbering
(B) Dickinson were written over a period that begins a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ended shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber
(C) Dickinson, written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and that ends shortly before Emily’s death in 1886 and outnumbering
(D) Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother, ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, and outnumbering
(E) Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber

pl review my analysis.

Q. Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington
Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few
years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and
ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886,
outnumbering her letters to anyone else

Meaning
ED wrote letters to SH over a period of time
Started before Susan marriage and ended before Emily`s death

Error Analysis
1) Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington
Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few
years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and
ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886,
outnumbering her letters to anyone else

The sentence has only one clause.
S-V is correct
V is correctly placed in past tense (passive voice-simple past)
Parallelism is correct.... beginning and ending
Pronoun...her refers correctly to Emily
Meaning is clear
idioms...none
modifiers...beginning and ending correctly modifies period
....outnumbering also correctly adds information to the preceding clause

POE
A is correct
B & C parallelism issue
D fragment
E placement of which is not next to letters

I was confused b/w A & E, but for the stated reason selected A.

I don`t find any grammatical error in A.

Pl clarify
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Dear Ashish,

First, let's address the reason that you eliminated option E. Logically, "which" can only refer to "letters" here, and not to "Susan Huntington Dickinson" (since she's a person and "which" can't refer to people). Since the logical antecedent is clear, "which" doesn't need to be placed right next to "letters".

Second, option A can be eliminated in two ways: from the standpoint of meaning, and from that of grammar. The first is the explanation given in the OG. If I were to summarize the main point of this sentence, I'd say: "Emily Dickinson wrote more letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson than she wrote to anyone else." The period in which the letters were written is secondary to the main point of the sentence. In option A, "outnumber" is not even a verb: it's a verb-ing modifier. It doesn't make much sense to say that the main point of the sentence is to tell us when the letters were written.

Also, if you're unable to decide what the main point of the sentence is, you can apply the rules about verb-ing modifiers to this question. A verb-ing modifier placed after a comma either describes the preceding action or presents a result of the preceding action. The latter option is clearly ruled out in this case, so we're left with the former. Does "outnumbering" describe "were written"? It doesn't. The fact that the letters were written during a specific period isn't logically related to the fact that the letters outnumber Dickinson's letters to anyone else. So, the verb-ing modifier "outnumbering" doesn't make sense here. We clearly need the verb "outnumber" in the correct answer.

I hope this helps to clarify your doubt.

Regards,
Meghna
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 02 Aug 2014, 15:45
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Hi Deepak,

I totally get that there is a meaning error in A - the verb-ing, separated by comma, in no way presents result or in any way describes the preceding clause. However, what I am trying to figure is how the main clause in question becomes the modifier (which is usually an fyi thingy) in the correct answer E, while the modifier becomes the main clause?

I think meghna mentioned, in the link that you redirected to, that the idea 'SD's letters to ED outnumbered her letters to anyone else' is the main idea and the time frame during which she wrote the letters is just an additional info. However, the construction of the original question says otherwise.

Can you please help me understand why the time frame during which the letter were written is not the main idea of the sentence? For example, if the sentence were in a history text book and time frame was critical to make sense then it would be totally justified as the main clause, and the fact that those letters outnumbered any other be a modifier or a subordinate clause.

Is there anything wrong with my reasoning? Please help!

Thanks,
Adi
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 15 Sep 2014, 02:53
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aadit1984
Hi Deepak,

I totally get that there is a meaning error in A - the verb-ing, separated by comma, in no way presents result or in any way describes the preceding clause. However, what I am trying to figure is how the main clause in question becomes the modifier (which is usually an fyi thingy) in the correct answer E, while the modifier becomes the main clause?

I think meghna mentioned, in the link that you redirected to, that the idea 'SD's letters to ED outnumbered her letters to anyone else' is the main idea and the time frame during which she wrote the letters is just an additional info. However, the construction of the original question says otherwise.

Can you please help me understand why the time frame during which the letter were written is not the main idea of the sentence? For example, if the sentence were in a history text book and time frame was critical to make sense then it would be totally justified as the main clause, and the fact that those letters outnumbered any other be a modifier or a subordinate clause.

Is there anything wrong with my reasoning? Please help!

Thanks,
Adi
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Hi Adi,
Thank you for posting your query here. :)

In the given sentence we have a concrete grammatical error in option A as you have already understood. So, we can reject choice A based on this error only. Also, if we consider the two pieces of information conveyed by the sentence:

1. ED wrote letters to SHD over a period beginning a few years before SHD's marriage to ED's brother and ending shortly before ED's death in 1886.
2. The letters written by ED to SHD outnumber her letters to anyone else.

So, the subject of the discussion here is ED's letters to SHD. Since the action of writing these letters is not a historical event we know that the main point of the sentence is the second one. Also as stated in OG, choice A overemphasizes on the period in which these letters were written. Note that, when there is an option available that conveys the intended meaning of the sentence better than the original sentence, then we can select the option even if there seems to be a change in meaning.


Hope this helps! :)
Regards,
Deepak
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 12 Jan 2016, 16:20
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In a verb+ ing modifier preceded by a comma, there may not be always a cause and effect phenomenon. It may be just as coincidental happening. See for instance,
Tom went all out to help the community, taking care of his own family’s welfare at the same time. – Here one cannot pick a cause and effect relationship, as the second action is coincidental and not a result.
Therefore, your statement that ED wrote letters, outnumbering her letters to anyone else, may be acceptable as an indicative statement.
However, in the case of the original topic, I feel the setting is different. Ed did not write those letters, because she wanted to win a letter-writing contest nor because she wanted to create a record for herself. It is in this context, that one can realize import of the modifier, “written over a period of … before ED’s death in 1886”. We can appreciate that the letters outnumbered her letters to anyone else, because here letters to SHD were written over a long period.
Therefore, your example “Ed wrote letters to SHD, outnumbering’ is technically ok;

But, in the original topic writing is not the core action. The main intent of the passage is the outnumbering. That is the reason why, the writing is relegated to a modifier and the correct choice takes ‘outnumber’ as the main verb.
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 15 Jul 2016, 12:42
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Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumbering her letters to anyone else.

(A) Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumbering
The sentence say that the purpose of writing the letters was to outnumber her letters to anyone else.
(B) Dickinson were written over a period that begins a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ended shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber

(C) Dickinson, written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and that ends shortly before Emily’s death in 1886 and outnumbering

(D) Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother, ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, and outnumbering

(E) Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber - Correct
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 29 Sep 2016, 08:48
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Would appreciate if an expert helps me out here. In a sentence , will ( ,which )always modify the immediate preceding NOUN even if it is part of a PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE or WE SHOULD IGNORE PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE ALWAYS?

ex. Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber her letters to anyone else.
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 29 Sep 2016, 10:18
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AmanKidCACS
Would appreciate if an expert helps me out here. In a sentence , will ( ,which )always modify the immediate preceding NOUN even if it is part of a PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE or WE SHOULD IGNORE PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE ALWAYS?

ex. Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber her letters to anyone else.
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Dear AmanKidCACS,

I'm happy to respond. :-)

My friend, the first thing I will say is: grammar is NOT mathematics. Students often look for "always true" rules that they can apply, and grammar is seldom as black & white as math. I will also say that the GMAT SC, like all language, depends on meaning. Meaning always trumps grammar.

So, the frustrating answer to your question is: it depends on meaning. Sometimes, the word "which" after a comma will apply to the word it touches, in accord with the Modifier Touch Rule. Many times, though, the target noun is separated from the modifier "which" by a vital noun modifier, something absolutely necessary for determining the identity of the noun.

For example, in the GMAT SC sentence you cited, the phrase "Emily Dickinson’s letters" is ambiguous--do we mean all the letters that the great Spinster of Amherst wrote? Do we mean only some of her letters? The modifier that follows, "to Susan Huntington Dickinson," is a vital noun modifier because it makes crystal clear exactly which letters we mean. Like all vital noun modifiers, this is essential to the meaning, so it is allowed to come between the target noun "letters" and the "which" modifier. This is one of the valid exceptions to the Modifier Touch Rule.

So, no, we can always say that the "which" applies to the noun that it touches, and we can always say that it doesn't. What we always have to do is pay attention to meaning.

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 27 Oct 2016, 23:51
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Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumbering her letters to anyone else.

(A) Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumbering

(B) Dickinson were written over a period that begins a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ended shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber

(C) Dickinson, written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and that ends shortly before Emily’s death in 1886 and outnumbering

(D) Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother, ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, and outnumbering

(E) Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber



In A, Emily Dickinson's ............were written......., Outnumbering.......(we have sub + Verb , verbing....which demands cause and effect. No cause and effect) Out
In B, period than begins.....(period is over, so wrong tense)
In C, D and E

Subject is followed be a comma, So another comma is required and after second comma verb must be present(Emily Dickinson's....Dickinson,........)

In C, second comma is missing, so verb is missing. Out
in D, after second comma 'and outnumbering' is present, No verb. Out

Therefore E.
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 02 Nov 2016, 19:09
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As the answer is option E, the correct sentence turns out to be :

Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber her letters to anyone else.

My question is :

In the phrase 'outnumber her letters to anyone else', what does the pronoun 'her' refer to ?

As per the meaning, 'her' seems to refer to Emily Dickinson. Can it refer to Emily Dickinson even though this name has not been specified as a proper noun ?

I thought every pronoun should have a clear antecedent and can not refer to a possessive form ?

Please help me with the above query.
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 04 Nov 2016, 00:30
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AK700
As the answer is option E, the correct sentence turns out to be :

Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber her letters to anyone else.

My question is :

In the phrase 'outnumber her letters to anyone else', what does the pronoun 'her' refer to ?

As per the meaning, 'her' seems to refer to Emily Dickinson. Can it refer to Emily Dickinson even though this name has not been specified as a proper noun ?

I thought every pronoun should have a clear antecedent and can not refer to a possessive form ?
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Hi AK700, while in this case, the possessive pronoun her is very aptly referring to possessive Noun (Emily Dickinson’s), GMAT is actually very flexible with this.

So, an object pronoun can refer to a subject noun, Object pronoun can refer to possessive noun, Subject pronoun can refer to possessive noun, and Possessive Pronoun can refer to non-possessive noun.

Basically, don't fret too much about this aspect of pronouns.
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 09 Oct 2017, 02:58
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Hello
Too many replies. I have just one issue with the question and all the options. Because all the options have a common theme - Emily Dickinson's letters. 's.
Let's study the option E.
E. Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber her letters to anyone else.

In E, and so in every sentence, there seems to be a fatal flaw. First, the subject is Emily Dickinson's letters, and not Emily Dickinson. This leaves the her in the final clause outnumber her letters to anyone else with no antecedent. Second, even if you say that Emily Dickinson is the antecedent, it is actually Emily Dickinson's.

Now, to bolster my view, refer Manhattan's SC Guide.

Wrong statement: The board is investigating several executives' compensation packages in order to determine how much may have been improperly awarded to THEM.
Correct statement: The board is investigating the compensation packages of several executives in order to determine how much THEY may have been improperly awarded

Explanation: In this sentence, the pronoun them refers better to packages than to executives'.


So, can anyone explain how is any choice correct?
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 09 Oct 2017, 05:25
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talismaaniac
Hello
Too many replies. I have just one issue with the question and all the options. Because all the options have a common theme - Emily Dickinson's letters. 's.
Let's study the option E.
E. Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber her letters to anyone else.

In E, and so in every sentence, there seems to be a fatal flaw. First, the subject is Emily Dickinson's letters, and not Emily Dickinson. This leaves the her in the final clause outnumber her letters to anyone else with no antecedent. Second, even if you say that Emily Dickinson is the antecedent, it is actually Emily Dickinson's.

Now, to bolster my view, refer Manhattan's SC Guide.

Wrong statement: The board is investigating several executives' compensation packages in order to determine how much may have been improperly awarded to THEM.
Correct statement: The board is investigating the compensation packages of several executives in order to determine how much THEY may have been improperly awarded

Explanation: In this sentence, the pronoun them refers better to packages than to executives'.


So, can anyone explain how is any choice correct?
Show more



Hello talismaaniac,


I will be glad to help you out with this one. :-)


The way we have possessive nouns, similarly we have possessive pronouns too.

Possessive pronouns refer to possessive nouns as well as non-possessive nouns.

For example:

Ria's mother gifted Ria a beautiful dress on her birthday.

In the above-mentioned sentence, the possessive pronoun her refers to the possessive noun Ria's.


Just replace the pronoun her with its antecedent Ria's, and the sentence will continue to convey the same logical meaning.

Ria's mother gifted Ria a beautiful dress on Ria's birthday.


The official sentence at hand has the same usage of her in the original sentence as well as all the answer choices.


Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber her letters to anyone else.

The possessive pronoun her correctly refers to the possessive noun Emily Dickinson’s in the above-mentioned correct version of this official sentence.

Again, just replace her with Emily Dickinson’s, and the sentence will still stand correct and logical.


Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 09 May 2018, 04:33
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Could anyone please explain the following sentence taken from GMAT Guide -

In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence has an action performed on it by
someone or something else.

In that case all those options which have "were written" should be wrong because they do not have any performer ?

One more doubt -
"which" modifies a noun/subject just preceding it. In the given problem doesn't "which" modifies "Dickinson" ??

Please help..
Thanks :)
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 10 May 2018, 18:57
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somey
Could anyone please explain the following sentence taken from GMAT Guide -

In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence has an action performed on it by
someone or something else.

In that case all those options which have "were written" should be wrong because they do not have any performer ?

One more doubt -
"which" modifies a noun/subject just preceding it. In the given problem doesn't "which" modifies "Dickinson" ??

Please help..
Thanks :)
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1. The passive is not wrong. Some people think that its usage should be minimized, in favor of more "active" sentences.

2. A which may or may not refer to the noun just before it.
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 01 Jun 2018, 23:41
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mikemcgarry

(E) Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber

doesn't which refer to Dickinson here?

Is it an absolute rule that X, which : which always refers to the X?
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 01 Jun 2018, 23:59
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Is it an absolute rule that X, which : which always refers to the X?
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No. There are many situations in which a which is not (or cannot be) placed right next to the noun that it is supposed to refer to. More generally, don't immediately remove an option if you feel that a that or a which is referring to a noun that is not right next to it. Try to find more reliable approaches into the question before moving on to ambiguity.
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 29 Nov 2018, 11:21
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As per my understanding which can refer to "Emily Dickinson???s letters" if "to Susan Huntington Dickinson" can be used any where else in the sentence and the sentence still makes logical sense. In this case can't we place "to Susan Huntington Dickinson" after "were written" and the sentence will still make sense.
For eg
Emily Dickinson???s letters were written to Susan Huntington Dickinson over a period beginning....
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 29 Nov 2018, 20:25
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razakay
As per my understanding which can refer to "Emily Dickinson???s letters" if "to Susan Huntington Dickinson" can be used any where else in the sentence and the sentence still makes logical sense. In this case can't we place "to Susan Huntington Dickinson" after "were written" and the sentence will still make sense.
For eg
Emily Dickinson???s letters were written to Susan Huntington Dickinson over a period beginning....
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No, we can't do that here.

Emily Dickinson's letters were written to Susan Huntington Dickinson over a period beginning...

Your sentence means that all of ED's letters were written (to SHD). What we need is a reference to only those letters that were written to SHD.
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goaltop30mba
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 17 Jan 2019, 04:44
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aadit1984
Hi Deepak,

I totally get that there is a meaning error in A - the verb-ing, separated by comma, in no way presents result or in any way describes the preceding clause. However, what I am trying to figure is how the main clause in question becomes the modifier (which is usually an fyi thingy) in the correct answer E, while the modifier becomes the main clause?

I think meghna mentioned, in the link that you redirected to, that the idea 'SD's letters to ED outnumbered her letters to anyone else' is the main idea and the time frame during which she wrote the letters is just an additional info. However, the construction of the original question says otherwise.

Can you please help me understand why the time frame during which the letter were written is not the main idea of the sentence? For example, if the sentence were in a history text book and time frame was critical to make sense then it would be totally justified as the main clause, and the fact that those letters outnumbered any other be a modifier or a subordinate clause.

Is there anything wrong with my reasoning? Please help!

Thanks,
Adi



Hi Adi,
Thank you for posting your query here. :)

In the given sentence we have a concrete grammatical error in option A as you have already understood. So, we can reject choice A based on this error only. Also, if we consider the two pieces of information conveyed by the sentence:

1. ED wrote letters to SHD over a period beginning a few years before SHD's marriage to ED's brother and ending shortly before ED's death in 1886.
2. The letters written by ED to SHD outnumber her letters to anyone else.

So, the subject of the discussion here is ED's letters to SHD. Since the action of writing these letters is not a historical event we know that the main point of the sentence is the second one. Also as stated in OG, choice A overemphasizes on the period in which these letters were written. Note that, when there is an option available that conveys the intended meaning of the sentence better than the original sentence, then we can select the option even if there seems to be a change in meaning.


Hope this helps! :)
Regards,
Deepak
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the pronoun "her" in both the original sentence and the correct answer choice should refer to Emily. Emily Dickinson hasn't been mentioned anywhere, even in the correct answer choice. could you help me understand this?
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Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written 17 Jan 2019, 07:44
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aditliverpoolfc

the pronoun "her" in both the original sentence and the correct answer choice should refer to Emily. Emily Dickinson hasn't been mentioned anywhere, even in the correct answer choice. could you help me understand this?
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Hi aditliverpoolfc, her is used as a possessive pronoun here and it correctly refers to the possessive noun Emily Dickinson's.

So, it's a perfect usage here. However, it should be noted that even if that were not the case (had a possessive noun not been present), the sentence would still have been fine. GMAT is quite flexible on this front.
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