"Tendency of changing," right or wrong?

<p>On the writing section, there was a question about a filmmaker who had a "tendency of changing" his recollections. I immediately thought that it could bettered by changing it to "tendency to change," but I was not sure that "tendency of changing" was incorrect. So, I bubbled in the magical E for that one. What did everyone else do for that one?</p>

<p>Tendency to change I think.</p>

<p>If you can try to remember most of the sentence that would be helpful. This is most likely a parallelism issue, which depends on the rest of the sentence. But judging from experience, the answer is usually "to change" instead of changing. College Board isn't very fond of the -ing.</p>

<p>I also put the infinitive form "to change"... if I remember correctly.</p>

<p>power it was sentence errors not correction.
I put A, tendency of changing as an answer. Isn't that an idiomatic error?</p>

<p>Oh god, I was so scared for that one, and replaced the E with A at the last minute.</p>

<p>I think I'm right. I remember seeing the "to" somewhere later in the sentence, too.</p>

<p>Yes, Ash... I believe it is. It would be like saying, "plan on attending", when the grammatically correct expression is "plan to attend".</p>

<p>The entire sentence was, as well as I can recall: "The filmmaker had a tendency of changing his recollections, perhaps because he kept having to tell different reporters the same story over and over again."</p>

<p>The issue was definitely not with parallelism.</p>

<p>"The filmmaker had a tendency to change his recollections, perhaps because he kept having to tell different reporters the same story over and over again."</p>

<p>Thats the way it should read.</p>

<p>That sounds better. But how do you know it's wrong? Just give me a specific grammar concept.</p>

<p>I see. I thought so too, but there are other questions I have encountered that would have been better with a change, but was not necessarily gramatically incorrect. Well, poo, I just got slapped.</p>

<p>"tendency to change" is CORRECT</p>

<p>But is "tendency of changing" INCORRECT? That's the real question.</p>

<p>Yes it is.</p>

<p>OMG CAN SOMEBODY JUST GIVE ME A GRAMMATICAL CONCEPT THAT TELLS ME IF THIS OR THAT IS WRONG NO YESES OR NOS PLEASE. </p>

<p>Pardon the caps.</p>

<p>I just spent a fair amount of time looking this up. I didn't take the exam, but I found the question interesting enough . . .</p>

<p>I can find NO evidence that "tendency to change" is, by the book, more grammatically correct.</p>

<p>You make me scared, Nom. If this becomes wrong, then it will be the second question I know I missed...</p>

<p>Gone is the 800 dream...</p>

<p>Nom is my new favorite person in these here forums.</p>

<p>Missing two questions should not depress you. If it makes you feel any better, I would have marked the same answer. But, being the grammar freak that I sometimes am, I looked it up. . .</p>

<p>EDIT:
"Nom is my new favorite person in these here forums."</p>

<p>At the expense of others? Nah. I turn down the honor : )</p>

<p>How did you look it up in the test? Did I interpret that wrong? </p>

<p>But it's on CR and W. This way I can't even DREAM about one 800. And math is like, no way.</p>