Wednesday, January 29, 2014

grammaticality - How to better reword this sentence? (SAT Writing question)




The security office recommends that, when asked to provide a computer password, do not choose any string of letters that can be found in a dictionary.




  • a) do not choose (incorrect, I think this would make the sentence a run-on)

  • b) not to choose (what I had thought was correct because "The security office recommends not to choose any string of letter that can be found in a dictionary." sounds correct to me)

  • c) not choosing (incorrect, doesn't "sound" right)

  • d) you not choose (includes the pronoun "you," so I had automatically ruled this option out)

  • e) your choice should not be (too wordy)




But the correct answer had turn out to be option d. Please explain why, in the end, d is the correct answer?


Answer



Andrew is correct. They placed an adverbial phrase between the transitive verb and the direct object (phrase). I believe that you omitted the word that, following recommends, when choosing your answer, which led you to believe that option B was correct. It is an easy mistake to make if you are not paying close attention.


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