<p>The following question is from the Identifying Sentence Errors part:</p>
<p>The first signs in six months of a pickup in consumer spending **are emerging<a href="A">/b</a>, **which reduces<a href="B">/b</a> the chances **that<a href="C">/b</a> the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates when **it meets<a href="D">/b</a> next month.</p>
<p>The solution says that the error is at B and that the correct sentence should read "...are emerging, reducing the chances that...". Could someone explain that to me? I'm not a native speaker, but the original sentence sounds right to me...</p>
<p>That's what I thought, too, but here's an excerpt from the Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar:
"A third type of relative clause (though treated as non-defining in some models) is the sentential relative clause, which refers back to a part or the whole of a previous clause. It is usually introduced by which."</p>
<p>I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think that "signs" is the subject of "which reduces," so it would have to be the verb "reduce." Or I guess you could just change it to reducing.</p>
<p>Relative pronouns (who/whom, which, that) should come next to the noun they are modifying. In the test sentence, the relative pronoun is placed next to a verb. </p>
<p>The grammar section of the new SAT is pretty basic, so I don't think you should look for any complicated rules. For example, on the old SAT II writing, you needed to know the use of who and whom, possesive with a gerund, subjunctive mood, etc. Those errors are no longer on the test.</p>
<p>@ramakong: Yeah, but in this case, the "which" doesn't refer to a single noun but a whole clause, which (haha) is correct (see my quote from the Oxford Dictionary). I asked some native speakers, too, and they all said that the sentence was fine.
I still don't get it... But never mind.</p>
<p>Which doesn't refer to anything and there is a subject verb disagreement. This appeard on another college board test (with a different subject but same answer). And the correct answer got rid of "which". This also happened with "that" (as in, "that reduces" became "reducing").</p>
<p>Ramakong is correct. Just eliminate superfluous words and you'll get this:</p>
<p>The first signs are emerging, which reduces the chances that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates.</p>
<p>Doesn't it just sound wrong? Well, that would be because it is wrong.</p>
<p>"Which" cannot refer to "The first signs are emerging," because "The first signs are emerging" can't reduce something, because it's a clause, not a subject. Obviously, "The first signs" can reduce something, because it's actually a subject.</p>
<p>So, since which is referring to the wrong thing, it's obviously wrong. It doesn't really matter how you fix it, because the question isn't asking for that.</p>
<p>The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar is referring to a type of relative clause that, while common enough in published writing, is usually considered poor usage. Grammar dictionaries (and other references) often err on the side of including all the possible forms of a grammatical construction. They don't tell you which ones are considered best from a usage standpoint. </p>
<p>In SAT land (and in the minds of crotchety old English teachers everywhere), the word "which" is a relative pronoun that should have a clearly identifiable noun antecedent. Anything else is a usage error. And if you read the directions carefully, the instructions to the Writing section say, "The following sentences test your ability to recognize grammar and usage errors."</p>
<p>So you need a grammar and usage manual, one intended to help students improve their writing, not a neutral and inclusive reference. Here's what my usage manual (Hacker's excellent Rules for Writers) says about your question:</p>
<p>"Generally, avoid broad reference of this, that, which and it. For clarity, the pronouns this, that, which, and it should ordinarily refer to specific antecedents rather than whole ideas or sentences. When a pronoun's reference is needlessly broad, either replace the pronoun with a noun or supply an antecedent to which the pronoun clearly refers."</p>
<p>P.S. It's not a parallelism error. Parallelism is only an issue when you have items in some kind of series: "I went swimming, biking, and running" contains a series of verbs, so we can't write, "I went swimming, biking, and for a run." </p>
<p>When one element of the sentence is dependent on another element of the sentence, parallelism is not an issue. We could say "I was studying to improve my grades" because the phrase "to improve my grades" is supposed to describe your studying; it tells us why you were doing it. It's not in the same series; it's a modifier. Therefore, we do not have to write, "I was studying, improving my grades" or "I was studying and improving my grades." </p>
<p>In the sentence from your test, the second part of your sentence (beginning "which") is not in a series with the first part; it's dependent, so it doesn't need to be parallel.</p>