A Writing Question that makes u wanna yell OMG?!?!

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>BB pg. 750 #14</p>

<p>High school gradutates usually do not end up earning as much income as college graduatesdo, this being why so many high school students go on to pursue college degrees.</p>

<p>A same
B do, this is why so many high school students
C do; this face explains why so many high school students
D do; this fact explaining the reason for why so many high school students
E do, explaining why so many high school students</p>

<p>I eliminated the answers down to C and E and ending up picking E because I thought that the dependent clause afterwards "explaining why..." could be used since it still flows well. Why is the answer C instead of E?</p>

2

<p>Remember, the SAT is obsessed with dangling modifiers or whatever they call them. "Explaining" is a participle, so it must be referring back to a noun somewhere in the sentence. It doesn't, so C is better.</p>

3

<p>____ing = BAD. REMEMBER AND DO GOOD WRITING SECTION.</p>

4

<p>it should be C
E is wrong,because according to E ,highschool graduates explain why so many people persue colleges.This is not correct.The FACT that college students earn more explains why so many people persue colleges</p>

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<p>man_utd</p>

<p>your explanation is off. because if you do put C, it makes sense. it dosent mean what you said</p>

<p>the previous poster is right about the modifier</p>

6

<p>You need a semicolon because each part is a full sentence on its own.</p>

7

<p>"explaining" has to refer back to something, but it doesn't have to refer back to a single noun or noun phrase. it can refer back to a whole sentence. that's not uncommon. </p>

<p>notice anything strange about what i just wrote? in the last sentence of the above paragraph, "that" refers to the whole sentence before it (although it is true it is not a participle). </p>

<p>i think the problem with E is that "explaining" is working pretty much as a subordinate conjunction (like "because" or "while" or "since"). maybe there's some stylistic rule that says you shouldn't use participles as conjunctions. that's the only change that C makes because imo E points to the "fact" in the sense that it points to the whole sentence.</p>

8

<p>my 2 cent:
a) if it is ; instead of ' I would pick A
e) we don't use defining clause v-ing right after comma, that's bad.
c) being the only reasonable choice</p>

9

<p>@stuntburn
Actually, CR7<em>ManUtd's explantion (among the others') is correct.


</p>

<p>Just rewrite the resulting from the answer E sentence in an equivalent way:</p>

<p>High school gradutates, explaining why so many high school students usually do not end up earning as much income as college graduates do, go on to pursue college degrees.</p>

<p>Answer C is correct:</p>

<p>High school gradutates usually do not end up earning as much income as college graduates do; this fact explains why so many high school students go on to pursue college degrees.</p>

10

<p>
[quote]
Just rewrite the resulting from the answer E sentence in an equivalent way:</p>

<p>High school gradutates, explaining why so many high school students usually do not end up earning as much income as college graduates do, go on to pursue college degrees.

[/quote]

how do you know this is equivalent? you moved a whole clause around which could refer to something else. the "explaining" clearly refers to the whole clause beforehand, which you have to admit is possible. there, i just did it with "which".</p>

11

<p>here is an example i found that used the participle: </p>

<p>Roughly three-quarters say that defending the country from future terrorist attacks should be a top priority, making it the third highest priority among the 20 issues tested in the survey. Overview:</a> Economy, Jobs Trump All Other Policy Priorities In 2009</p>

<p>I really don't see anything wrong with that. In particular, I don't see why it would be improved by changing it to</p>

<p>Roughly three-quarters say that defending the country from future terrorist attacks should be a top priority; this fact makes it the third highest priority among the 20 issues tested in the survey.</p>

<p>Re: post #4, "making" by the way already refers to the fact that 3/4 people said so and so. we just phrase it using the construction of "the fact," but really "making" refers directly to "3/4 people say ..." because it refers to all of that.</p>

<p>There are other examples one could just make up, like:</p>

<p>An airplane-sized asteroid landed in central Arizona yesterday, creating the largest known crater on Earth. </p>

<p>Of course, you couldn't swap it around like post #9 suggests because it's not the asteroid but the whole clause, i.e. the asteroid plus its landing:</p>

<p>An airplane-sized asteroid, creating the largest known crater on Earth, landed in central Arizona yesterday.</p>

<p>^That doesn't sound right. And that's not a reason to claim that the first version example is wrong. It's a reason to claim that participle can also refer to a clause, just like "that" or "which" can.</p>

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<p>OMG!</p>

<p>OMG!</p>

<p>jk, it's C because "explaining" has to modify something, and that something is "high school graduates," which is wrong.</p>

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<p>instead of
High school gradutates usually do not end up earning as much income as college graduates, blah blah blah</p>

<p>what could i replace the first part of the sentence, so the modifier "explaining" can work?</p>

14

<p>Guys ,I always know the correct answer,but cant explain it to other people ;]I guess I won`t be a teacher :D</p>

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<p>in choice c, what does "face" mean</p>

<p>thanks</p>

16

<p>dang it that was just a typo lol. i'll fix it. </p>

<p>So after all that, has anybody agreed on a reason why the answer is C?</p>

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<p>most people agree that participles have to refer to nouns, making E wrong. it also makes the previous sentence incorrect.</p>

18

<p>OMG are you still arguing about this question</p>