Reading quality literature is suggested around the forums as

Question

Reading quality literature is suggested around the forums as one of the way to increase verbal skills. I tried doing that and got even more confused.

Here is the first sentence of Babbit, nobal prize winning nobel:

The towers of Zenith aspired above the morning mist; austere towers of steel and cement and limestone, sturdy as cliffs and delicate as silver rods.

Now, doesn't what follows the semi colon has to be full sentence? Is so, what is the verb in the second sentence here?

Experts please help!

someone79 · Answer

You are right, but the rules can be broken. Don't do so on the GMAT. Writers break the rules often.

What follows the semicolon in this case is a non-restrictive modifier, an absolute modifier. A comma would have been more appropriate.

thugly921 · Answer

Someone is absolutely correct, authors have their own stylistic choices which differs heavily from text to text. Reading quality literature is best for improving on RC questions, not SC. RC passages at the 700 level tend to be dense, similar to classic literature or nobel prize winning texts.

I would have chosen a dash in your example rather than semicolon or comma, showing further how you can't put stock in style choices.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Reading quality literature is suggested around the forums as

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