From SC Guide 4th Edition - Pg 86

"Wrong: George Carlin, both shocking and entertaining audiences across the nation, who also struggled publicly with drug abuse, influenced and inspired a generation of comedians."

Its stated that since the above is incorrect as one of the noun modifiers ("who also struggled..") does not touch the noun, the best alternative may be to rephrase the sentence so that one of the modifiers is no longer a modifier. The best version is stated as,
(there's also a version labelled 'Better', but I only have a doubt about the one labelled 'Best')

"Best: Both shocking and entertaining audiences across the nation, George Carlin influenced and inspired a generation of comedians, EVEN AS HE struggled publicly with drug abuse"
Now I assume that the non-modififer clause being referred to is "even as he struggled publicly with drug abuse".
Is it a non-modifier because it contains a pronoun?
(which acts as subject, and a modifier's subject should lie outside it)
Or,
Does it modify 'influenced' and 'inspired' by stating them to be simultaneous to his struggling with drug abuse?

And,
What about the sentence being written by converting the first noun modifier into a verb modifier?
eg:
"George Carlin, who also struggled publicly with drug abuse, influenced and inspired a generation of comedians, WHILE both shocking and entertaining audiences across the nation."
Is this correct? Am I correct in calling "While both....nation" a verb modifier?

There's one more SC question, on the same topic, shared on the mba.com website,

"For almost a hundred years after having its beginning in 1788, England exiled some 160,000 criminals to Australia.

-For almost a hundred years after having its beginning in 1788,

-Beginning in 1788 for a period of a hundred years,

-Beginning a period of almost a hundred years in 1788,

-During a hundred years, a period beginning in 1788,

-Over a period of a hundred years beginning in 1788,"
A,C,D are incorrect, that's alright.
But I found both B and E correct,
the answer states that the clause "beginning a period..1788" modifies England,
How could one tell whether it modifies England or, whether it modifies the verb 'exiled'?

Thanks a ton!!

Hi Prashant - let me try to answer your first qs.
The explanation has already mentioned the reason of the error with misplaced modifier (who) and the new structure of the sentence in which one modifier is no longer a modifier. So the approach should be to understand exactly what has been explained.
We can restructure any sentence by grammatically correcting the error while not changing the meaning .
Here one of the modifier (who also struggled publicly with drug abuse) is converted as a subordinate clause by the subordinator ''even as' . Sometimes 'that' is used as a subordinator to achieve the same purpose .

Thanks ,
PM.

Thank you Pranab,
I understand that "even as he.." is a subordinate clause;
actually my confusion is about whether that clause is also a verb modifier or not. (the book says that it is not a modifier)
I now realize that verb modifiers can contain pronouns, so that argument cannot resolve the question.

Thanks.

"even as he struggled..." is a modifier, it is just no longer a noun modifier. it is an adverbial modifier. the same is true if you use your "while" example. as for your other question from mba.com's website, please provide a link for it (or better yet, provide a link in a separate thread) so we can address it once we verify the source.

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

I've a question about the version of this sentence that is labelled "better" in the SC guide.

Better: Both shocking and entertaining audiences across the nation, George Carlin, who also struggled publicly with drug abuse, influenced and inspired a generation of comedians.

The explanation in the book says that the above version is awkward because either the main verb is delayed or the ideas are not connected properly.

I believe the main verb is not that much delayed from its subject. There is only a single modifier 'who also... ' between the subject 'George Carlin' and verbs 'influence' & 'inspired'.

Also I could not understand why its explained as ideas are not connected properly in this version?
Why is this version awkward??

Rather than answering why this is awkward, I'll suggest instead that any time you spend worrying about whether something is awkward is wasted time that could be better spent addressing actual grammar issues that make a difference in GMAT problems. I've never seen a case where something being awkwardly written was the only reason an answer was wrong. Do yourself a favor and concentrate on more important topics.. :)

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor