Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclin

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak, although they are willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills.

Concepts tested here: Comparison + Grammatical Construction + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• A comparison must always be made between similar elements.
• Information that is important to the core meaning of the sentence can never be placed between commas.

A: This answer choice incorrectly compares the noun phrase "computer skills or other technical skills" to the clause "there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak"; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements. Further, Option A uses the passive and needlessly indirect constructions "there is a disinclination on the part of many people" and "the degree to which their analytical skills are weak", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

B: This answer choice incorrectly compares "computer skills or other technical skills" to "many people"; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements. Further, Option B incorrectly places information important to the core meaning of the sentence - the fact that many people are willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills - between two commas; please remember, information that is important to the core meaning of the sentence can never be placed between commas.

C: Trap. This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "recognize that they are weak to a degree"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that analytical skills make many people disinclined to recognize that they - the people - are weak; the intended meaning is that many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak. Further, Option C uses the needlessly indirect clause "analytical skills bring out a disinclination in many people", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

D: Correct. This answer choice uses the phrases "recognize that their analytical skills are weak" and "willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills", conveying the intended meaning - that many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak, although they are willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills; remember, "while" is used to convey a sense of concurrence. Further, Option D avoids the comparison errors seen in Options A and B, as it makes no comparisons. Additionally, Option D only places extra information - the fact that the people are willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills - between commas. Besides, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical"; the use of "while" incorrectly implies that many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak, at the time when they are willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills; the intended meaning is that many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak, although they are willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills; remember, "while" is used to convey a sense of concurrence. Further, Option E uses the passive and needlessly wordy phrase "Many people have a disinclination to recognize", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Extra Information between Commas" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

(A) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak. (Illogical comparison)
(B) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, which they admit they lack, many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak. (Illogical comparison)
(C) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, analytical skills bring out a disinclination in many people to recognize that they are weak to a degree. [Comparison ok, but later part changes meaning]
(D) Many people, willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills, are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak. [simple and clear]
(E) Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical skills. [wordy]

I would choose D.

IMO - D ...OA pls !!

Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.
(A) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.Misplaced modifier ..
(B) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, which they admit they lack, many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.Misplaced modifier ...comparing computer skills with people ..(C) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, analytical skills bring out a disinclination in many people to recognize that they are weak to a degree......comparision is right but sentence construction is akward .(D) Many people, willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills, are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.
(E) Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical
Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.
(A) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.
(B) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, which they admit they lack, many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.
(C) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, analytical skills bring out a disinclination in many people to recognize that they are weak to a degree.
(D) Many people, willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills, are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak...correct
(E) Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical - akward

A. Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.
WRONG: Disinclination is compared to Skills

B. Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, which they admit they lack, many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.
WRONG: Changes meaning of the sentence a bit.

C. Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, analytical skills bring out a disinclination in many people to recognize that they are weak to a degree.
WRONG: Analytical skills cannot "bring out a disinclination"

D. Many people, willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills, are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.
CORRECT: Meaning is conveyed and is correct in construction.

E. Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical skills.

Many people, willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills, are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.

Ignore the underlined part and concentrate on the rest of the sentence. This is the one that makes most sense. The rest use improper comparisons.

In option D - isn't enclosed within comma making it non essential and thus changing the meaning drastically. E might be verbose but it is ensuring the logical meaning IMO. From D , I gather that the portion between the comma can be removed and this will change the meaning

Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.

The idea expressed here is that people don't recognize weakness in their analytical skills and that this is not the same with computer or technical skills. A and B don't make correct comparisons (between computer or technical skills and analytical skills) and are just awkward and wordy.
(C) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, analytical skills bring out a disinclination in many people to recognize that they are weak to a degree still awkward and not direct enough
(D) Many people, willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills, are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak
(E) Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical wordy and shifts the emphasis away from the lack of recognition of analytical skill weakness

Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.

(A) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak wrong comparison
(B) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, which they admit they lack, many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak wrong comparison
(C) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, analytical skills bring out a disinclination in many people to recognize that they are weak to a degree Wordy
(D) Many people, willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills, are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak Correct
(E) Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical Wordy

Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.

(A) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak

Unlike computer skills or other technical skills , there is a disinclination : wrong comparison.

(B) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, which they admit they lack, many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak
Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,many people are : wrong comparison.
(C) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, analytical skills bring out a disinclination in many people to recognize that they are weak to a degree
change in meaning : skills dont bring out disinclination.
(D) Many people, willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills, are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak
Correct : Sub , modifier , Verb+ object + that modifier
(E) Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical
wrong meaning
means they have problem to admit weakness simultaneously but are ok to admit separately.

Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.

(A) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak - Comparison error
(B) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, which they admit they lack, many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak- Comparison error
(C) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, analytical skills bring out a disinclination in many people to recognize that they are weak to a degree - meaning change - It states that analytical skills bring out a disinclination in people to recognize that people are weak to a degree ,but computer skills or other technical skills do not bring out this disinclination in people.
(D) Many people, willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills, are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak - Correct
(E) Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical - have a disinclination to recognize" is wordy

Answer D

The point of this sentence is to contrast how people feel about their computer skills or other technical skills with how they feel about their analytical skills. However, the awkward, wordy construction that begins with there is confuses this comparison, so that computer skills… are illogically contrasted with disinclination. Making the sentence more concise allows the contrast to be clear.

A An awkward, wordy construction prevents clarity of meaning; the comparison of computer skills… to disinclination is illogical
B Computer skills or other technical skills are illogically compared to many people
C The construction skills bring out a disinclination in many people is wordy, awkward, and idiomatically incorrect
D Correct. Making people the subject of the sentence allows a construction that clearly contrasts how they feel about the two sets of skills.
E Have a disinclination is wordy (the verb disinclined is preferred) and, when followed by while willing, creates an incomplete construction

I have a question concerning choice (E):

Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical skills.

The official explanation for why this choice (E) is wrong is as follows:

Have a disinclination is wordy (the verb disinclined is preferred) and, when followed by while willing, creates an incomplete construction

I agree that answer is wrong because it is wordy, but I don't agree that it creates an incomplete construction. I've been scouring through grammar forums and grammar articles. Everything that I've read leads me to believe that this construction is perfectly grammatical.

So, am I wrong or is the Official Explanation wrong?

Thanks for the detailed response.

While I have understood the rationale why B is wrong, something which I need help on is a sentence like below, will " which " like used in below sentence refers to technical skills only or it can be inferred correctly that it aims to address both computer and technical skills ?

(B) ...... computer skills or other technical skills, which ................

Thank You
Abhinav

Hey...
Yes this construction is incomplete because 'while' is a subordinating conjunction and needs a full clause associated...
Which could have been true if it said.."while people are willing to admit.."

Since 'people are' does not appear anywhere else in the sentence, it can not be ellipsed.
That's why it is incomplete.

Let me know if it helped.

Please help !!!
GMATNinja, aragonn, GMATNinjaTwo, hazelnut, generis

Not able to eliminate option E. I thought While is presenting a contrast here which is fine.
Other Folks has mentioned option E is wordy /awkward .. what it means ? also is while used here presents simultaneous action ?
DO we need have a IC after while ? its not present here

Please let me know how you will going to eliminate option E

soapbolt - It is better to us verb form "are disinclined", rather noun form "have a disinclination".
use of while clause is not right either. while clause is dependent clause, it need a comma before it. In general.

Two things are to be noted in E.
1. "Have disinclination" may not be incorrect grammatically, But it is definitively inferior as per the V-A-N rule of formal English.
2. The subordinate conjunction 'while', can only be used ahead of a subordinate clause with a subject and verb. The real proof is the current question on hand. We cannot take the official explanation as incorrect unless we have more information.
Is there any authentic example of 'while' that is accepted as a modifier as in E in any grammar book or dictionary? That will help to counter GMAC's OE.