WRITING Question

<p>1.Some of the workers (who resent) the supervisor's authority (would probably) feel uncomfortable (if) they were to acquire the independence that (they demand). </p>

<p>I thought the error should be at D but its No error... Why is this?</p>

<ol>
<li>The friendly competition between my older sister and (I) began as soon as we (learned) that our aunt had joked that she might write a will (leaving) her house to (me alone).</li>
</ol>

<p>I know its supposed to be (me) due to the objective case but what if i can't figure that out. how do i flip the sentence around so i can tell which one is right?(me/I).</p>

<p>Another one:</p>

<ol>
<li>Many changes occurred while she was president of the (college, and they increased its educational quality as well as effectiveness.)</li>
</ol>

<p>I chose D which was “college;these changes increased its educational quality and effectiveness.” </p>

<p>The correct Answer was E, college;these changes increased both the educational quality and effectiveness of the college. Why is this? I thought it’s logically referring to college’s?!?</p>

<p>if you got a 2310 why are you still worrying</p>

<p>Retaking… i want that 800 in writing…</p>

<p>If you already have a 2310 (with a 770 in writing based on your previous posts) and are having trouble with questions of this nature, then I suggest you don’t retake… it is very likely that you may score below what you had previously scored.</p>

<p>can someone please answer my question in this thread please!?!?!??? i didn’t ask for social commentary.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I imagine you thought it was an ambiguity error in D? “They” in “they demand” properly refers to the workers. You could also have a sentence where “they demand” is replaced by “he demands,” but that would change the meaning of the original sentence which is a no-no on the SAT. The original is grammatically correct.</p></li>
<li><p>I have a GREAT trick for you here. If you are ever confused about this, try replacing the conjoined phrase (in this case “my older sister and I”) with either WE or US. If you replace it with “we,” then the proper singular pronoun is “I.” If you replace it with “us,” then the proper singular pronoun is “me.”</p></li>
</ol>

<p>In this sentence, it would be totally weird to say “The friendly competition between WE began as soon as we learned . . . .” So, you don’t want the pronoun “I” in there. It sounds right to say “The friendly competition between US began as soon as we learned . . . .” That makes “me” the right pronoun.</p>

<ol>
<li> I’m not totally sure, but here’s what I think. I don’t think there is anything actually wrong with the original sentence. However, you are supposed to pick the choice that is the MOST clear. E seems marginally more clear than D.</li>
</ol>

<p>It is the object of the preposition so it needs to be “me.”</p>

<p>No offense man, but this is like 1st grade grammar.</p>

<p>Yeah, well i’m no the brightest when it comes to writing so leave me be. I need all the guidance i can get… and many thanks got2begreen… i’m going to read the explanation tomorrow since i have to go to bedddd</p>

<p>and Green thanks… I thought so too. i thought that its was logically referring back to college and saying it again would be redundant?</p>

<p>Here is what I think about question 12:
When looking at Sentence Improvement Questions we are supposed to find the most “elegant” way to express what is meant by the sentence. Therefore, I would also prefer answer choice E because of the use of “both … and …” which is just a really good way of expressing that both things have increased. Would somebody agree?</p>

<p>There is nothing really wrong with “it” because there is only one impersonal thing that it could possibly refer to (“college”) and hence it is not ambiguous. But it sounds clearer and better to clarify it like E does, although I don’t think it is not necessary to do so. However, at the same time, E has its own problem. It should be “both the educational quality and the effectiveness.” You need the second “the” for parallelism.</p>

<p>So overall, the question is flawed.</p>

<p>I see but would say it is better to always refer back and use the exact noun to ensure clarity?</p>

<p>No, it isn’t always better to repeat the noun. Normally, if the noun is the subject, then if you use a pronoun to refer back to it as the subject of another clause and it would sound perfect:
Mountain Dew is green, and it tastes good.
There’s no rule to it, but since “Mountain Dew” is the subject of the first clause and “it” is the subject of the second clause, it sounds consistent (“parallel,” if you will) and smooth for “it” to be used. Alternatively, it would sound clunky and weird if “Mountain Dew” were repeated in place of the pronoun.</p>

<p>On the other hand, although there is nothing wrong with the pronoun use (“its”) in the sentence Many changes occurred while she was president of the college; these changes increased its educational quality and effectiveness, for some reason I can’t explain, saying “its” sounds weird (to me, but not necessarily to you). There’s nothing wrong with it grammatically, remember that. And the question is flawed. But sometimes it just makes the sentence more clear if you repeat the noun instead of using a pronoun.</p>

<p>I see. Thanks!</p>

<p>I want to refer to my earlier post again:</p>

<p>Do you really think E is better than C because in E there is no pronoun used or would somebody agree that it is just a better style because of the usage of “both … and …”?</p>

<p>^I think it’s because of the ambiguous pronoun. It takes a little bit of logical thinking to deduce that “its” is referring to the college.</p>