The first oversight board’s philosophy and its actions, including ruli

INFLUENCE IN / INFLUENCE ON

The correct answer does NOT depend on whether the phrase should be "influential in" or "influential on."

In many cases, including this question, both prepositions are correct. Find other reasons to eliminate an answer.

I am responding to a PM of sorts. To the author of that message: I encourage you next time to post your doubts or questions on the topic's thread.

Other aspirants may have been taught as you were. Now they, too, will benefit from the discussion. Everyone is here to learn.

Anonymous (for now) wrote

What source teaches this "metric"?

The source is misguided. That blanket distinction is insensible.

Stylistic aim may suggest choosing one construction over the other, but the distinction between influence on and influential in is not a grammatical imperative.

Very often, to have a big influence on something is also to be influential in something. The "something" in this case is this industry.

XYZ can both HAVE influence ON or IN an industry
• The board's philosophy and its actions . . . have as much influence now ON (or IN) the industry as they did during the board's tenure.

AND can BE influential on or in the industry
• The board's philosophy and actions are as influential in (or on) the industry now as they were during the board's tenure.

The prepositions "on" and "in" are not always interchangeable, but I have not seen any official question test that subtlety. If there are such questions, please post them here.

"Influential on," see below, is appropriate.

Nick90 wrote

That assertion is not correct. No flat rule exists. In this question, both IN and ON are fine. Your example does not use "influential." Examples above do.

There are much better reasons to eliminate the incorrect answers than the preposition that should follow "influential"!

Anonymous ,below I have given you six examples of the use of the phrase INFLUENTIAL ON.

Nick90 , I could find just as many examples containing the phrase "influential in."

I hope this analysis brings clarity. It's best to leave "influential" out of the picture. There are better reasons to eliminate the incorrect answers.

I discuss those reasons in my separate post below.

Hope that helps.

All quotations come from highly respected sources. The journals especially contain prose that is about as good as it gets. "Influential ON"

"Many, many atheists and agnostics have been heroes in the long history of outlawing torture. The two most influential on me, over the years, have been Camus and Orwell, two atheists whose sense of morality outshines that of many Christians." "The Right and Religion," Atlantic Monthly, December 14, 2007

"Of the book’s two epigraphs, one ... comes from 'Tristram Shandy' ... a work whose merry challenge to the conventions of the realistic novel has proved ... more influential on the Continent than in England. "Two's a Crowd," New Yorker, September 27, 2004

"Even more influential on Shakespeare is the king’s concern with 'equivocation.'" "Behind 'King Lear': History Revealed," New York Review of Books, November 29, 2015 issue

The following quotes come from stories in three top American newspapers.

"Mr. Williamson's work, meanwhile, has been highly influential on fields outside of economics." "Nobel Looks Outside Economics," Wall Street Journal, October 7, 2009

"[China's] bold, ruthless leader, Xi Jinping, wields greater domestic power than any Chinese leader since ... Mao Zedong ... and has become extremely influential on the world stage.” Xi Jinping Sees Some Pushback Against His Iron-fisted Rule, Washington Post, August 2, 2018

"Andrea del Palladio, whose theories and elegant palaces were to be immensely influential on architecture elsewhere in Europe ..., was one of the greatest architects of the period." New York Times, circa 2005 (accessed from cited Fodor's page on 9/15/2018)

**all sources were accessed on September 15, 2018

I was stuck between Option (B) and Option (D), and finally selected Option (B), because "influential on industry" seemed incorrect to me.

Could someone please explain as to:
1. How is Option (B) incorrect?
2. Is "influential on" right idiom usage? (as the official answer explanation stated so)

1- This sentence talks about "The first oversight board’s philosophy and its actions" so it is plural, we eliminate answer choices " A & C" as a part with the pronoun "It" it is ambiguous to what it refers to.
2- The influence is now as mentioned in the sentence, so we eliminate answer choice "B"
3- We narrowed our answer choices between "D & E" E is wrong since it uses the past perfect tense "they had been", so the right answer iS "D"

Can anyone please explain influence in vs influence on more detail? or how do I use influence in and how do I use influence on ?
does it matter in GMAT ?

How do you pick between B and D?
Not clear on that one yet!:|

Because we have the word "now". Hence use of "have been" is incorrect

Option B is wrong because "Have been" and "now... as they were" is redundant, one implies the other

As [adjective] X as [adjective] Y

This sentence means: During a period in the past, the first board of oversight in industry Q embraced a philosophy and took actions that were revolutionary. That philosophy and those actions are as influential now as they were revolutionary then.

X and Y are identical in degree (of strength or intensity) but different in kind
THEN: Y = (intensely) revolutionary
NOW: X = (intensely) Influential

Strip the sentence.
The first oversight board’s philosophy and its actions _____ as influential in/on the industry now as _______ revolutionary during the board’s tenure.

Split #1: S/V agreement
The subject is plural: actions and philosophy
The verb should be plural
Eliminate A and C, which use the singular "has" and "is" (and the singular pronoun "it")

Split #2: Verb tense: HAVE BEEN does not belong with NOW
The board's X and Y HAVE BEEN as influential NOW in the industry as they were during the board's tenure. Ouch.

Grammar: present perfect
-- Action that has happened and continues into the present
NO. In the past the philosophy and acts were "revolutionary," which connotes both newness and big change. The philosophy and acts are no longer new. They are accepted practice. If the revolutionary aspect is gone, the simple past is correct.

-- A completed action whose effect continues
The board's philosophy and actions were revolutionary. The effect of being revolutionary did not and logically could not continue. An approach that is revolutionary is new. If the revolutionary aspect is gone, the simple past is correct.

-- action in the past with no discernible time frame - not applicable

"Have been influential" also implies an unintended meaning. During the first board's tenure its approach was revolutionary. Whether the board's revolutionary approach would endure and be influential was not known. The sentence intends to emphasize that what WAS revolutionary endured and IS now influential.

In any event, that construction is just all kinds of wrong.
Eliminate B

Split #3: Parallel verb tenses ARE/HAD BEEN is INCORRECT
are indicates simple present, for which we need only the simple past were in this context.

Past perfect (the "past of the past") phrase "had been" suggests TWO earlier past moments, A and B. Almost always we need that construction to be coupled with a past perfect verb, B, (none here) or a time marker that happened before now but after A.

In option (E) the use of "had been" is inappropriate.
The board's actions are influential now. They were revolutionary "back then," i.e., in the past, during the board's tenure.

"Had been revolutionary" suggests that they WERE revolutionary prior to some event in the past; the event happened; and the actions stopped being revolutionary.
That meaning is incorrect.

Eliminate E

ANSWER D

Hi generis,
I understood the point of option D, although I had one doubt regarding usage of 'on the industry' instead of 'in the industry'. Isn't 'on the industry' wrong? I chose E over D simply because of this one confusion.

Thanks

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