Writing Question

[yearsofwisdom]

<p>Unlike commercial broadcasting, producers working for public television are not primarily interested in reaching the widest possible audience.</p>

<p>Answer is A.... WHY!?</p>

<p>Paul Robeson openly condemned bigotry and oppression, despite him knowing such outspokenness could damage his flourishing career as a singer and actor.</p>

<p>I chose answer E which was "although he knew that such outspokenness could damage" which was correct but i was also debating choice A... why is E correct?</p>

<p>Long-distance swimmers coat their bodies with grease not to keep themselves warm,this is a common belief, but to lessen the resistance of the water against their bodies.</p>

<p>Answer was E " as is commonly believed"... why!? i was debating B which was "despite a common belief". why is it E?</p>

<p>The clarity of language in Fitzgerald's writing is far superior to other novelists.</p>

<p>Answer is B " to that in the works of other novelists" WHY!? i was debating E, "than compared with the works of other novelists"? Why is it B and not E?</p>

[oblivi0n]

<p>

Unlike commercial broadcasting, producers working for public television are not primarily interested in reaching the widest possible audience.

</p>

<p>You can’t compare “commercial broadcasting” to “producers”. It can be “unlike those working for commercial broadcasting” or something similar.</p>

<p>

Paul Robeson openly condemned bigotry and oppression, despite him knowing such outspokenness could damage his flourishing career as a singer and actor.

It won’t work this way because it should be “despite his knowing”</p>

<p>Refer to [Gerunds</a> and Infinitives: Their Noun Roles](<a href=“http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/gerunds.htm]Gerunds”>http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/gerunds.htm) :

Do we say “I can’t stand him singing in the shower,” or do we say “I can’t stand his singing in the shower”? Well, you have to decide what you find objectionable: is it him, the fact that he is singing in the shower, or is it the singing that is being done by him that you can’t stand? Chances are, it’s the latter, it’s the singing that belongs to him that bugs you. So we would say, “I can’t stand his singing in the shower.”

</p>

<p>

The clarity of language in Fitzgerald’s writing is far superior to other novelists.</p>

<p>Answer is B " to that in the works of other novelists" WHY!? i was debating E, “than compared with the works of other novelists”? Why is it B and not E?

</p>

<p>“than compared” is wrong. Either use “than” or “compared”. </p>

<p>I would’ve solved your third question by ear, so I can’t really help with that one.</p>

[gensis]

<p>1: Illogical comparison, Broadcasting is compared to producers</p>

<p>2: Sounds awkward as hell.</p>

<p>3: This is commonly believed is a complete sentence, therefore there must be a conjunction word between it.</p>

<p>4: Illogical comparison: Clarity is compared to novelist.</p>

[yearsofwisdom]

<p>as is commonly believed is a conjunction!?</p>

[lonelywayfarer]

<p>I don’t know grammar rules, but this is how I would think of them.</p>

<p>1) Unlike commercial broadcasting, producers working for public television are not primarily interested in reaching the widest possible audience.</p>

<p>The ‘commercial broadcasting’ and ‘producers’ need to agree. So it could be ‘commercial broadcasting’ and ‘public television’, or it could be ‘producers working for commercial broadcasting’ and ‘producers working for public television.’</p>

<p>2) Paul Robeson openly condemned bigotry and oppression, despite him knowing such outspokenness could damage his flourishing career as a singer and actor.</p>

<p>Paul Robeson and “knowing/knew” need to agree. Stick the noun in for the pronoun and its obvious which one is correct. (…despite Paul Robeson knowing or …although Paul Robeson knew?)</p>

<p>3) Long-distance swimmers coat their bodies with grease not to keep themselves warm, (this is a common belief), but to lessen the resistance of the water against their bodies.</p>

<p>the (this is a common belief) is describing the fact that the swimmers do so. So “despite” wouldn’t work because the swimmers aren’t doing anything in spite of anything… despite would be like “the swimmers used the grease despite the common belief that they shouldn’t do so.”</p>

<p>4) The clarity of language in Fitzgerald’s writing is far superior to other novelists.</p>

<p>The subject in the sentence is “the clarity.” Sometimes when I get confused I cross out all the irrelevant words (of language in Fitzgerald’s writing)–so you’re left with “the clarity is far superior to other novelists.” Again the subjects in a comparison need to agree–they both need to be a level of clarity or they need to be a novelist. So in this case it could be "Fitzgerald was better at writing clearly than other novelists (the contrasted subjects are Fitzgerald and novelists) or “The clarity of Fitzgerald’s writing is far superior to the clarity of the writing of other novelists.” The pronoun ‘that’ replaces ‘the clarity of the writing’ since it is already stated.</p>

<p>***were these on the Oct SAT? I don’t remember them, except maybe the swimmer one.</p>