Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which is the more

There are two solid but simple ways of taming this apparently frightening topic.

1. The idiom and the modification route: ‘rather than’ is the right idiom, ‘instead of’ is wrong

Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which is the more conventional approach for someone new to financial planning, real estate has become increasingly attractive to young people as a first investment. -------- instead of is a wrong idiom, rather than is the right idiom. gone



B) Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which is the more conventional approach for those new to financial planning, young people have shown an increasing attraction to real estate as a first investment. –same as A


C) Rather than buying stocks and bonds, which is the more conventional approach for someone new to financial planning, real estate has become increasingly attractive to young people looking for a first investment. ---Idiom is right but ‘rather than buying’ is modifying real estate, which is wrong; it should modify young people


D) Rather than buy stocks and bonds, which are the more conventional investments for those new to financial planning, young people have turned increasingly to real estate as a first investment. ---Right idiom and right modification ---correct choice

E) Instead of stocks and bonds, which are the more conventional approach for those new to financial planning, young people have shown an increasing attraction to real estate as a first investment. ---wrong idiom

2. Modification and diction route

The initial modifier should modify young people and not real estate. So A and C are gone.

Among B, D, and E, the use of ‘have shown increasing attraction’ is worng diction. One should either say ‘are attracted to’ or use a synonymous 'have turned increasingly to'. Therefore, B and E can be rejected. D survives.

HTH