The organic food industry

[kramacha1979]

GPrep #1

The organic food industry has organized a successful grassroots campaign - using websites, public meetings , and also mass mailings - that have convinced the Department of agriculture to change the proposed federal regulations for organically grown food

A) using websites, public meetings , and also mass mailings - that have convinced

B) using websites, public meetings , and also mass mailings - that has convinced

C) by using websites, public meetings , and also mass mailings - in convincing

D) by the use of websites, public meetings, as well as mass mailings - that convinced

E) which used websites, public meetings , and mass mailings - in convincing

OA : B

A has wrong Subj-Verb Agreement

What's the flaw in the rest ?

[kramacha1979]

On More thought I killed C and E
b/c
The industry has organized a campaign in convincing .. sounds wrong ..

between B and E, That convinced ..change in verb form and it's not needed to switch here ..also, by the use ..as well as.. awkward ..Kill E

Ans B

Am I missing any other pitfalls

[stock.mojo11]

GPrep #1

The organic food industry has organized a successful grassroots campaign - using websites, public meetings , and also mass mailings - that have convinced the Department of agriculture to change the proposed federal regulations for organically grown food

A) using websites, public meetings , and also mass mailings - that have convinced

B) using websites, public meetings , and also mass mailings - that has convinced

C) by using websites, public meetings , and also mass mailings - in convincing

D) by the use of websites, public meetings, as well as mass mailings - that convinced

E) which used websites, public meetings , and mass mailings - in convincing

OA : B

A has wrong Subj-Verb Agreement

What's the flaw in the rest ?

GMAT prefers active voice to passive voice. Hence C & D out

Usage of which is incorrect in E. Which is generally preceded by a comma when used as a relative pronoun

[JonathanSchneider]

Note that choice B maintains the present perfect tense: "has organized a campaign ... that has convinced." We cannot use the simple past tense "convinced" here, as that tense would not mesh with the present perfect. Moreover, "in convincing" is weak; we want to express that this campaign did the convincing. "In convincing" indicates that this campaign was just part of what convinced the Department. That is not the intended meaning of this sentence.

[farooq.mazhar]

GPrep #1

The organic food industry has organized a successful grassroots campaign - using websites, public meetings , and also mass mailings - that have convinced the Department of agriculture to change the proposed federal regulations for organically grown food

A) using websites, public meetings , and also mass mailings - that have convinced

B) using websites, public meetings , and also mass mailings - that has convinced

C) by using websites, public meetings , and also mass mailings - in convincing

D) by the use of websites, public meetings, as well as mass mailings - that convinced

E) which used websites, public meetings , and mass mailings - in convincing

OA : B

A has wrong Subj-Verb Agreement

What's the flaw in the rest ?

The original sentence is not correct because it uses plural verb for singular subject. A is out.
B sounds ok...So I'll keep it in my answer list.
C: "in convincing" is not appropriate in this sentence. simple present tense form is require.
D: "by the use of " is wordy. We can simply say "by using". "Remember this point .... I have seen this formation in OG's questions.
E: same as C.

So finally "B" remains.

Regards,
Farooq

[RonPurewal]

GMAT prefers active voice to passive voice. Hence C & D out

whoa, there are several flavors of wrongness in that post.

first, there is no passive voice anywhere in any of these choices. you should probably recalibrate your definition of "passive voice".
(to learn / re-learn what passive voice means, google the term - you'll find lots of pages with definitions.)

second, the gmat doesn't really "prefer active voice".
there are some situations in which the active voice is better, and other situations in which passive voice is better. if you think you can just cross out anything that uses the passive voice (the REAL passive voice - not the parts of this problem that have been mistaken for passive voice!), you are in for some nasty surprises.
there are all kinds of official problems in which the correct answers use the passive.

Usage of which is incorrect in E. Which is generally preceded by a comma when used as a relative pronoun

when a modifier is set off by dashes, the dashes are grammatically identical to commas, so this argument doesn't work either.

[RonPurewal]

the posts here, for the most part, aren't accurate, except for choice (a). a previous poster correctly stated that choice (a) has incorrect subject-verb agreement (singular subject, plural verb).

--

the problem with (c) is NOT grammatical; the grammar of (c) is just fine.
the problem with (c) is that it uses two different transitions incorrectly.

* if you say "subject + clause + BY VERBing", then "by VERBing" must explain HOW the main clause occurred.
e.g.
i prepared for the test by reviewing takeaways on the MGMAT forums.
note that the boldface clause describes HOW i prepared for the test.

choice (c) means that using websites, etc. was how the industry organized the campaign -- in other words, they used the websites and public meetings to organize the campaign in the first place. that's an incorrect meaning.
(the campaign ITSELF used these things; the correct modifier in (a) and (b) shows that relationship.)

* if you say "subject + clause + IN VERBing", then subject + clause must be an ACTUAL PART of the action of VERBing.
e.g.
i solved all the problems in OG12 in preparing for the GMAT.
--> notice that solving the problems IS ACTUALLY PART OF preparing for the test.

choice (c) fails here, too, since organizing the campaign (the main clause) is not ACTUALLY PART OF convincing the government.

[RonPurewal]

choice (e) has two problems.

the first is "in convincing", which is wrong for the same reason why it's wrong in choice (c). see above.

the other is incorrect verb tense. "which used" (simple past tense) shouldn't be in a tense occurring prior to "has organized" (present perfect). this construction mistakenly suggests that the campaign "used X, Y, and Z" before it was even organized in the first place.

[RonPurewal]

finally, the easiest way to kill (d) is to note that the construction "X, Y, as well as Z" simply doesn't exist.
the only way to properly string three items in a list is "X, Y, and Z".

--

another way to figure out that this is wrong is to realize that "as well as ..." is a MODIFIER, and thus can be stricken from the sentence without affecting the surrounding grammar.
that's problematic: if you strike "as well as mass mailings" from (d), you get remaining words that clearly don't work.

remember: "as well as" is NOT a replacement for "and".

[manjeet.singh]

Hi Ron..

I have a query..
We have generally seen "and also" is wrong in most questions as it is redundant. I have only seen it in the right answer choice of one question.
In that question you have explained that "and also" is used whenever we want to point to one person or option.
Please justify the usage in this question?

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron..

I have a query..
We have generally seen "and also" is wrong in most questions as it is redundant. I have only seen it in the right answer choice of one question.

there's nothing redundant about "and also".

"and also" is redundant if it appears in the same sentence as "both"; this may be what you're thinking about.

i.e.,
X and also Y --> totally fine
both X and also Y --> redundant (and therefore incorrect)

[yuanfeng.ma]

Hi Ron,
Why did the action of simple past occur prior to the action of present perfect?

The "action of organize" should be over or is a past event though action's effect is still effective now. How to tell the sequence of the action here since both actions are all over?

choice (e) has two problems.

the first is "in convincing", which is wrong for the same reason why it's wrong in choice (c). see above.

the other is incorrect verb tense. "which used" (simple past tense) shouldn't be in a tense occurring prior to "has organized" (present perfect). this construction mistakenly suggests that the campaign "used X, Y, and Z" before it was even organized in the first place.

[kvitkod]

According to the original meaning both verbs should occur simultaneously (HAS ORGINIZED ...., USING). Present perfect + past simple imply that the one verb occurs before the second, that contradicts the original meaning

Hi Ron,
Why did the action of simple past occur prior to the action of present perfect?

The "action of organize" should be over or is a past event though action's effect is still effective now. How to tell the sequence of the action here since both actions are all over?

[RonPurewal]

How to tell the sequence of the action here since both actions are all over?

i'm not sure whether i understand this question correctly; it appears you're asking how to tell which came first between (a) the organizing of a campaign and (b) the functioning of that campaign.

if you are asking this question, then you aren't thinking about the meaning of the sentence at all! that is a serious problem -- if you don't think about the meaning of the sentences, then the majority of SC problems will be impossible for you to solve.

(clearly, a campaign must be organized before it can "use" things.)

[yuanfeng.ma]

Hi Ron,

Sorry about the confusion, I do understand which event should happen first in terms of logic.

What I do not get is how to judge which event should happen first in the analysis of the tense given in Choice E.

It seems that your analysis indicates the action in the simple past occurs befoe the action in present perfect,
Is that the case?

How to tell the sequence of the action here since both actions are all over?

i'm not sure whether i understand this question correctly; it appears you're asking how to tell which came first between (a) the organizing of a campaign and (b) the functioning of that campaign.

if you are asking this question, then you aren't thinking about the meaning of the sentence at all! that is a serious problem -- if you don't think about the meaning of the sentences, then the majority of SC problems will be impossible for you to solve.

(clearly, a campaign must be organized before it can "use" things.)