The Federalist papers, a strong defense of the United States Constitut

a) since each of them were
Wrong. Each of them was not were.

b) since they were each
Wrong. each will be advocate of constitution not advocates.

c) since all of them were
"them" is not clear.

d) each of which was
each will be advocate of constitution not advocates.

e) because all of the men were
Seems OK.

IMO E.

Yes "and also" is wordy and certainly not preferred in correct answer choice. You will also see few problems/explanations in OG eliminating answer choices with "and also" as wordy.

What is the source of this question?
Isn't 'The Federalist Papers' a collective noun, and therefore shouldn't it be singular?

Collective nouns are singular nouns that represent a group. Examples include family, army, company, etc.

In this case the papers are emphasized, so we use the plural form. If we had changed the sentence to use a collective noun we would use a singular verb - The collection of Federalist Papers is one of the most important historical works from the Early American Era. in this example, collection is the collective noun and the focus is on the group, not the papers themselves.

We can do the same with family. My family is driving me crazy. (collective) The members of my family are driving me crazy. (plural)

KW

SPLIT1) SVA. THE SUBJECT OF THE SENTENCE IS "THE FEDERALIST" AND "PAPERS" IS A WORD DESCRIBING IT, "PAPERS" IS NOT PART OF THE SUBJECT BECAUSE IT IS NOT CAPITALIZED, THAT IS WHY THE SUBJECT SHOULD HAVE A PLURAL VERB BECAUSE OF THE WORD "PAPERS" DESCRIBING IT. A, C AND D ARE OUT.

SPLIT2) PARALLELISM. "A STRONG DEFENSE" MUST BE PARALLEL WITH WORD CONSTRUCTION SUCH AS "AN IMPORTANT BODY". E IS OUT

SPLIT3) OPTION "D" MISSES CONJUNCTION "AND" AFTER THE WORD "CONSTITUTION" . D IS OUT.

SPLIT4) OPTION "C" THE WORDS "IS REPRESENTING" CHANGES THE MEANING AND SOUNDS WEIRD.

lalania1, if the word "papers" were really just modifying "Federalist," then we wouldn't be able to use it to determine singular/plural. Only the subject affects that decision! However, the subject is "The Federalist papers," hence the plural noun. If anything, we can see "Federalist" as a modifier, but it might be simpler in this case to think of the whole thing as a noun phrase. Similarly, we'd use the plural when talking about "the Godfather movies" or "the Star Wars movies." The movies are plural, and the titles tell us which movies we're referring to.

hi guys

in option B had 'and' replaced 'as well as' in the starting of the sentence, would it still be right?

MikeHelios, that would be fine. "And" is the most common parallelism marker--we'd still be saying that the papers were "a strong defense" AND "and important body of work."

Can someone give a clear explanation?

The Federalist papers, a strong defense of the United States Constitution as well as an important body of work in political science, represent the handiwork of three different authors.

Must be (B)

I got this wrong twice and still have no idea why.
I was really tempted to choose B, because of the parallel structure, but what drove me away is that it the paper was refer as an defense of...., which is a singular noun, and yet b used a plural verb for it. That's why I finally choose a as answer, in spite of the clearly lack of parallelism.

Can some one hind some light why the papers can be referred as a singular collection while at the same time seen as plural noun.

Posted from my mobile device

The easier thing to look for here at first is the Subject Verb Agreement.

Now the subject here is not singular but plural. Notice the word ‘papers’ that isn’t in italics, which means that it is not the name of the document under discussion.

We need the verb ‘represent’ to go with this subject.

Scan the options and eliminate choices that flout the SVA:

A) and important as a body of work in political science as well, represents

(B) as well as an important body of work in political science, represent

(C) and also a body of work of importance in political science is representing

(D) an important body of work in political science and has been representative of

(E) and as political science an important body of work too, represent

Eliminate Options A, C and D.

Two options with ‘represent’.
Let’s look at Option E

We can now check for parallelism. In Option E it says ‘as political science’ which changes the meaning of the sentence.

Eliminate Option E.

Option B is the best choice.

Hope this helps!

The correct answer is given in the original post under the spoiler as well as in the posts above. It's B.

Hello experts!

Within A and E, are the phrases "as well as" and "too" (respectively) redundant? It seems to be so, but I'm not 100% certain. If it were, would it be a valid reason to eliminate them as an answer choice? Moreover, if it's not, why not?

(A) and important as a body of work in political science as well, represents

At first the subject might seem to be the federalist papers but pay attention sure "the federalist" is italicize and "papers" are not. Hence 'the federalist' is an adjective to 'papers'. papers is a plural subject so we need a plural verb for that which is represent instead of represents.
Hence A is out.


(B) as well as an important body of work in political science, represent
Correct

(C) and also a body of work of importance in political science is representing
The use of 'also' after 'and' ruins the parallelism between United States constitution and body of work of importance.

there is one more error in this option 'is representing' is a present continuous tense which cannot be used to state a fact.

(D) an important body of work in political science and has been representative of
This is a very awkward construction. There is no "," before 'an important body' this forces us to think what this sentence is modifying.


(E) and as political science an important body of work too, represent
The use of 'as' is usually before a verb and not a noun. Also the uses of 'too' makes it wordy and redundant

Hit kudos if you understood.
Motivation helps to continue Helping!

Here's my explanation

Papers … represent

Hence, A, and C, which lacks a comma, can be excluded

D lacks a parallel structure

between B and E

E uses and as, political science an important body of work too, making the sentence awkward and not parallel

Therefore B is the best answer choice