Mideast immigrants’ rates of entrepreneurship exceed virtually every other immigrant group in the increasingly diverse United States economy.
- Mideast immigrants’ rates of entrepreneurship exceed
- Mideast immigrants are exhibiting rates of entrepreneurship exceeding
- Immigrants from the Mideast exhibit rates of entrepreneurship exceeding those of
- The rates of entrepreneurship in immigrants from the Mideast exceed
- The rates of Mideast immigrants’ entrepreneurship exceeds those of
What does this question test?
This question tests your expertise in establishing parallel comparisons. It also tests your understanding of the role of different words in a sentence.
What does this sentence mean?
This sentence presents a comparison between the rates of entrepreneurship of two groups of immigrants in US.
- Group 1 – Immigrants from Mideast.
- Group 2 – Every other immigrant group
It states that rate of entrepreneurship of group 1 exceeds the corresponding rate for group 2.
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What are the errors in the original sentence?
This sentence has 2 errors.
Parallelism Comparison Error – The comparison established in this sentence is as follows:
- Element 1 – Mid east immigrants’ rate of entrepreneurship
- Element 2 – Every other immigrant group
Thus, rate is being compared to immigrant group. This is improper comparison.
Modifier Error – The term – Mideast immigrants is not correct because in this expression “Mideast” is being used as an adjective but it is expression in its noun form. The correct expression is Mideastern immigrants. Or it should be Immigrants from Mideast. As another example, we say – Asian people; we do not say Asia people.
Answer Choice Analysis:
Choice A: Parallelism & modifier Error.
Choice B: This choice has 3 errors.
Modifier Error as noted in choice A.
Parallelism Error: The comparison in this choice is also faulty since rates of entrepreneurship are being compared to immigrant group. This is similar to choice A
Verb Tense Error: The present continuous verb tense is incorrect since the original sentence states a fact. By using this verb tense, it implies that this is a continuous action, and this is non-sensical.
Choice C: No error. In this sentence the comparison is established between logically parallel entities:
- Element 1 – rate of entrepreneurship
- Element 2 – rate of entrepreneurship of every other immigrant group
Choice D: This choice has parallelism error as in Choices A and B
Choice E: This choice has 2 errors:
Modifier Error as noted in Choice A
SV-Number Error – The singular subject – rates – does not agree in number with the singular verb – exceeds.
Thus, Choice C is the correct answer.
What are the key take-away messages?
- Comparison must be established in a manner such that the elements being compared are both logically and grammatically parallel.
- Pay close attention to the role that a word plays in the sentence. Appropriate form of word should be used. For example, in this question, adjective form of Mideast was needed.
- Do not use present continuous verb tense to express a fact. Such usage may be commonplace in common spoken English but is not allowed in written business English.
- The subject and verb must agree in number.
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