Some writers adopt pen names to establish a reputation outside their

Question

Some writers adopt pen names to establish a reputation outside their usual  genre, and it is fairly common to do so  among mystery writers.

A. genre, and it is fairly common to do so

B. genre; it is fairly common to do that

C. genre, and doing that is fairly common

D. genre, a practice that is fairly common

E. genre; and it is fairly common practice to do it

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NitishJain · Answer

PFB my analysis for selecting D

A. genre, and it is fairly common to do so:  Problem is the use of "to do so", "it" is ambiguous

B. genre; it is fairly common to do that:  Wrong, "it" is ambiguous & use of "that",

C. genre, and doing that is fairly common:  Wrong: "doing that"

D. genre, a practice that is fairly common:  Correct: practice correctly refers to the first clause and that refers to "practice"

E. genre; and it is fairly common practice to do it :  Wrong: use of semicolon marks independent clause & use of the second "it"

YuvarajUmapathi · Answer

Correct Answer : D

Split between A, B, E, and C, D

The pronoun "it" doesn't match with any antecedent. Hence eliminate A, B, and E

In option C, the Verb-ing modifier in the second Independent clause is not modifying any subject or clause. Hence eliminate

A. genre, and it is fairly common to do so

B. genre; it is fairly common to do that

C. genre, and doing that is fairly common

D. genre, a practice that is fairly common

E. genre; and it is fairly common practice to do i

stne · Answer

Pronoun

A: using pronoun  it  to refer to the whole clause, before the comma is incorrect. Pronoun  "It"  is too small to refer to the whole clause.  INCORRECT.

B. genre; it is fairly common to do that: same issue as in option A, pronoun  it  is too small a referent to refer to the whole clause before the comma.  INCORRECT.

C.genre, and doing that is fairly common:  that  is incorrect, using  so  would have been better.   INCORRECT.

D.  A practise  correctly refers to the whole clause, before the comma. CORRECT.

E. pronoun  it  cannot refer to the whole clause. Using pronoun  "it"  twice does not help.  INCORRECT.

Ans- D

Hope it's clear.

NiftyNiffler · Answer

Some writers adopt pen names to establish a reputation outside their usual  genre, and it is fairly common to do so  among mystery writers.

A. genre, and it is fairly common to do so  -- "it" has no referent in the sentence
 
B. genre; it is fairly common to do that  -- same as A ("it" & "that")
 
C. genre, and doing that is fairly common  -- "that" has no referent
 
D. genre, a practice that is fairly common  -- CORRECT, "practice" rightfully modifies the previous clause
 
E. genre; and it is fairly common practice to do it  -- "it" is used for two different and unspecified pronouns.

So, Answer is  D

thangvietnam · Answer

Some writers adopt pen names to establish a reputation outside their usual genre, and it is fairly common to do so among mystery writers.

A. genre, and it is fairly common to do so

B. genre; it is fairly common to do that

C. genre, and doing that is fairly common

D. genre, a practice that is fairly common

E. genre; and it is fairly common practice to do it

regarding choice a.
"it" is good. but if you say "it is good to learn english" , you mean " it is good for every persons to learn english".
if no persons are mention, we mean every person or the person you talk to. 
if you want to specify who do , you say
"it is common for the mystery writers to do so".
it is incorrect to say
"it is common to do so among the mystery writers. this sentence, choice a, is not idiomatic.

dcummins · Answer

The problem with A is not that the use of "it" is ambiguous. In A, "it" is explicitive.

What is "so" referring to?

Some writers adopt pen names to establish a reputation outside their usual genre, and it is fairly common to do so among mystery writers.

substitute the antecedent of "do so" in to see..

Some writers adopt pen names to establish a reputation outside their usual genre, and it is fairly common to (adopt pen names) among mystery writers.

A illogically suggests that some writers adopt names among mystery writers. Logically the reputation should be established outside their normal genre for whatever they write, not established among other mystery writers.

D clearly and neutrally describes the practice.

ChiranjeevSingh · Answer

Here's the   official explanation   provided by the GMAC for this question:

The sentence suggests that it is fairly common for mystery writers to adopt a pen name in order to establish a reputation outside their usual genre. The underlined portion, however, has significant flaws.

Option A:  The impersonal use of  it  is unnecessary here: the thought underlying the wording  it is fairly common to do so  would be more clearly and more economically expressed by such wording as  doing so is fairly common.  The adverbial modifier  among mystery writers  misleadingly applies to the verb  do  rather than to the adjective  common  and could appear to mean that some writers adopt pen names while they are in a group of mystery writers. The phrase  do so  is probably intended to be a surrogate for  adopt pen names … genre,  but it is unclear what idea is meant to be expressed by  adopt pen names among mystery writers .

Option B:  The use of  that  is informal and somewhat unclear; could it refer, for example, to writers’ establishing a reputation outside their usual genre? But the verb phrase  do that  can be read as a surrogate for  adopt pen names … genre.  The adverbial modifier  among mystery writers  could be read as applying to the verb  do  rather than to the adjective  common . The idea  adopt pen names among mystery writers  is unclear.

Option C:  The use of  that  is informal and somewhat unclear; could it refer, for example, to establishing a reputation outside their usual genre? But the verb phrase  doing that  can also be read as referring to  adopt  pen names … genre.

Option D:  Correct. Even though the noun phrase  a practice … writers  clearly and economically refers to the practice by some writers of  adopt  … genre.  The only practice mentioned in the main clause is the practice of adopting pen names for a particular purpose, so the intended reference of  practice  is clear. The word  that  is a relative pronoun referring to  practice.  The adverbial phrase  among mystery writers  modifies  common.

Option E:  The word  and  is not needed following the semicolon and would be better omitted. The impersonal use of  it  in its first occurrence is unnecessary and especially undesirable given the second occurrence of  it.  What  it  refers to in its second occurrence is undesirably vague. The adverbial phrase  among mystery writers  modifies the verb  do.  This yields the unclear idea  adopt pen names among mystery writers .

The correct answer is D.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.

vasuca10 · Answer

VeritasKarishma  mam  GMATNinja  sir Kindly explain why doing that is incorrect in Option C? Also whether the usage of it is ambiguous in various options

Please elucidate

GMATNinja · Answer

Here's the full sentence again, with (C) inserted:

In this sentence, "that" seems to be a pronoun, and "that" is always singular when used as a pronoun. But which singular antecedent could "that" possibly refer to? "A reputation" makes no sense ("doing  a reputation  is fairly common among mystery writers" -- um, what?), and neither does "genre" ("doing  a genre ..."). Since "that" has no logical antecedent, we can eliminate (C).

For more on the word "that" and its various uses, check out  this article .

"It" suffers broadly from the same problem in (A), (B), and (E). "It" has no logical referent, and even if you want to believe that "it" is used reasonably as a non-referential pronoun in (A) and (B), there's no good reason to use the structure "it is fairly common" here. We're saying that a specific "practice" is common, and (D) expresses this meaning clearly, without any need for a pronoun that isn't completely clear.

I hope that helps!

Vatsal7794 · Answer

Hi Experts

GMATNinja   KarishmaB   MartyTargetTestPrep

Some writers adopt pen names to establish a reputation outside their usual genre, and it is fairly common to do so among mystery writers.

A. genre, and it is fairly common to do so

B. genre; it is fairly common to do that

C. genre, and doing that is fairly common

D. genre, a practice that is fairly common

E. genre; and it is fairly common practice to do it

Why option A is wrong?
Is it because it has two interpretations

1)Some writers adopt pen names to establish a reputation outside their usual genre, and it is fairly common to adopt names among mystery writers.
2)Some writers adopt pen names to establish a reputation outside their usual genre, and it is fairly common to establish a reputation among mystery writers.

Also in option D "a practice that is fairly common" is modifying "Repuation" or "Pen Names"

KarishmaB · Answer

I don't like (A) because 'among mystery writers' seems to be ambiguous (though for the most part, one can assume what it means, I agree).

... it is fairly common among mystery writers to do so. (expresses the intended meaning)
... it is fairly common to do so among mystery writers. ('among mystery writers' seems to modify 'to do so' as in 'to do so where?' to do so surrounded by mystery writers)

While (D) uses the noun + modifier construct which is very popular with GMAT writers and the meaning is clear too: a practice that is fairly common among mystery writers
'a practice' stands for the previous clause just like 'a phenomenon' or 'a situation' etc.

Hence (D) is the correct answer.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Vatsal7794 ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option A is not incorrect, as such, it is just less clear and wordier than Option D.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Some writers adopt pen names to establish a reputation outside their

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Some writers adopt pen names to establish a reputation outside their

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