The best way for artists to preserve their charcoal drawings

Question

The best way for artists to preserve their charcoal drawings is  to spray it with charcoal fixative before it is smudged when touched or otherwise handled.

A.to spray it with charcoal fixative before it is smudged when touched or otherwise handled.
B.by spraying them with charcoal fixative before touching or other handling smudges them.
C.for them to be sprayed with charcoal fixative before the drawings are smudged from touching or other handling.
D.if the drawings are sprayed with charcoal fixative before they smudge after being touched or otherwise handled.
E.to spray them with charcoal fixative before touching or otherwise handling them.

Source:800Score

NiftyNiffler · Answer

The best way for artists to preserve their charcoal drawings is  to spray it with charcoal fixative before it is smudged when touched or otherwise handled.

A.to spray  it  with charcoal fixative before it is smudged when touched or otherwise handled.  -- "drawings" is plural. "it" wrongly refers to plural noun. 
B.by spraying them with charcoal fixative before touching or other handling smudges them.  -- incorrect parallelism with "or" 
C.for them to be sprayed with charcoal fixative before the drawings  are smudged  from touching or other handling . -- awkward ,wordy and passive construct 
D.if the drawings are sprayed with charcoal fixative before they smudge after  being  touched or otherwise handled.  -- hypothetical "if" is wrong usage here 
E.to spray them with charcoal fixative before touching or otherwise handling them.  -- CORRECT, "them" unambiguously refers to drawings. Parallelism is maintained.

So,  E

daagh · Answer

The best way for artists to preserve their charcoal drawings is  to spray it with charcoal fixative before it is smudged when touched or otherwise handled.

A.to spray it with charcoal fixative before it is smudged when touched or otherwise handled. --- drawings is plural; the pronoun ’it’ is singular. wrong

B.by spraying them with charcoal fixative before touching or other handling smudges them. – ‘By spraying’ is not a correct idiom. ‘to spray’ is correct – B is wrong

C. for them to be sprayed with charcoal fixative before the drawings are smudged from touching or other handling.— too passive 
 
D.if the drawings are sprayed with charcoal fixative before they smudge after being touched or otherwise handled. – No conditionality is involved here. The use of ‘if’ is wrong.

E.to spray them with charcoal fixative before touching or otherwise handling them. The correct choice; 'them' refers to the drawing in both the places.

akshaygundeti · Answer

daagh  in the correct choice, I don't see the word smudge. Although the essence of the original sentence is maintained, shouldn't we also look out to not delete any details? Here smudge gives a reason for why the drawing shouldn't be touched which is completely missing in the correct choice.

daagh · Answer

aksha

As long as the meaning is clear, one shouldn't worry more.

daagh

The best way for artists to preserve their charcoal drawings

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The best way for artists to preserve their charcoal drawings

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