<p>Here is the ISE sentence: </p>
<p>A college that allows students to graduate (when not having) [A] obtained an education (has not fulfilled) <a href="its">B</a> [C] obligation (to those) [D] students. (No error) [E]</p>
<p>The answer is A and I could not understand why the participle "when not having" is incorrect.</p>
<p>Thanks guys:)</p>
<p>I think it should be “without having”.</p>
<p>I don’t know how to explain this, it’s just sound weird.</p>
<p>ambiguous or illogical modifier sounds like the college didnt graduate, although youre automatically assuming that it must clearly to the student</p>
<p>in cases where a present participle is preceded by a complete sentence, it modifies the head subject. in cases where there is no comma it modifies the subject immediately preceding it for instance</p>
<p>I saw a boy, sitting on a bench.
I saw a boy sitting on a bench.</p>
<p>with the use of a subordinating conjunction, it gets trickier, so use a little logic</p>
<p>I saw a boy while sitting on the bench.
I saw a boy when he was sitting on the bench.
try to determine who is doing what and if theres the slightest confusion or ambiguity its wrong</p>
<p>never go completely by what sounds awkward, even tho those that sound awkward are indeed wrong…there has to be a clear grammatical or logical erroe. hence while ‘without having’ sounds better , its still incorrect</p>
<p>has to be when THEy (the students) have not
graduated, thereby correcting the ambiguity</p>