As the former chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive

[cnhelen]

at first i eliminated all the choices with the word "as" because i think Ron said that we use "as" when we're going to talk about some other capacities later......?

"as a novelist" implies that you're going to talk about selma in some other capacity later ("as a novelist, she did X; as a woman, she did Y"). so we don't want that.

or see this thread (choice e)
post21741.html#p21741

[messi10]

I think that was specific to that question and that part was wrong because of the intended meaning of the sentence, not grammar. In choice E (of that question), it is incorrectly implying that as a novelist she turned away from XXXX. This is signaling that something else is coming up now but never does.

"As" has many uses in English, not just one. If you have the MGMAT sentence correction guide, an extensive use of "as" has been discussed in the advanced chapters. I think its chapter 13.

In this question, "as" is used as one of the three preposition forms. Here it is implying "in the role of"

As (= in the role of) the chair of....

[jnelson0612]

Thanks for your input, messi10! cnhelen, please let us know if you have further questions.

[cshen02]

Hey guys!

Just made up three forms of openings:
As the chair, Joan Philkill
A chair Joan Philkill
The chair Joan Philkill
Are the latter two also right (I mean the "as +comma", "a+ no comma", and "the+ no comma"?
I remember Ron wrote a good one on this....just couldn't recall where I read it first....Would anyone help?

Cheers!

[RonPurewal]

Hey guys!

Just made up three forms of openings:
As the chair, Joan Philkill

If followed by an account of something Ms. Philkill actually did as chair of whatever committee, sure, this could work.

"Chair" must also be followed by "of xxxxx committee/organization", of course, unless the identity of that organization is already clear in context. (You can't just say that someone is "the chair" without answering the question Chair of what?)

A chair Joan Philkill

This could not work. I don't think anything like it could ever work, either.

[RonPurewal]

The chair Joan Philkill

This kind of construction exists. For example, you can write After he first announced his retirement from the NBA, (the) basketball star Michael Jordan had a short career in professional baseball.
"The" isn't generally necessary; it is most often used when this type of construction starts the sentence.

With "the chair", though, this construction doesn't work, unless we already know (from some previous sentence) the answer to Chair of what?
(You can't put "chair of xxxxxxx" into this construction; it's too long. The construction becomes unreadable.)

[RonPurewal]

I remember Ron wrote a good one on this....just couldn't recall where I read it first....Would anyone help?

Cheers!

Maybe one of these:

post31581.html#p31581

post35618.html#p35618

[cshen02]

I remember Ron wrote a good one on this....just couldn't recall where I read it first....Would anyone help?

Cheers!

Maybe one of these:

post31581.html#p31581

post35618.html#p35618

Exactly what I'v been looking for! Yeah!

[RonPurewal]

Great.

[asnkarlygash]

at first i eliminated all the choices with the word "as" because i think Ron said that we use "as" when we're going to talk about some other capacities later......?

"as a novelist" implies that you're going to talk about selma in some other capacity later ("as a novelist, she did X; as a woman, she did Y"). so we don't want that.

Hi Ron, would you please explain what is the difference between the following sentences that are both from GMATPREP:
1) A novelist who turned away from literary realism to write romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, Selma Lagerlof became in 1909 the first woman and also the first Swedish writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

vs. As a novelist

2) As the chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and a board member for 28 years, Joan Philkill attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications.
vs. The former. (Why can't a former chair for 18 consecutive years? It is ok with me. Besides the meaning stuff, is it grammatically correct? I think it is grammatically correct because the 1) sentence is the correct answer without AS)

I have read the explanations above my post but I don't catch the idea. I know I am wrong somewhere but I can not convince myself.

So please correct me! Thank you.

[RonPurewal]

1) A novelist who turned away from literary realism to write romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, Selma Lagerlof became in 1909 the first woman and also the first Swedish writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

vs. As a novelist

This sentence could be written with "As a novelist", but it would be somewhat weird (and unnecessary) to circumscribe Lagerlof's accomplishments in that way.

If she'd had two entirely different careers, then this sort of modifier would make more sense:
As a novelist, Lagerlof won a Nobel Prize; as an artist, on the other hand, she remained relatively unknown for her entire life.

This last sentence cannot be written without the two instances of "as", since it must convey that essentially opposite things were true in different aspects of her life.

[RonPurewal]

2) As the chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and a board member for 28 years, Joan Philkill attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications.
vs. The former. (Why can't a former chair for 18 consecutive years? It is ok with me. Besides the meaning stuff, is it grammatically correct? I think it is grammatically correct because the 1) sentence is the correct answer without AS)

Trying to separate grammar from meaning is unwise (and, in most cases, impossible). They work together, not separately.

Yes, this sentence is "grammatically correct", in the sense that OTHER sentences can work correctly with the same structure.
With this particular sentence, though, this construction is nonsense, for the reasons explained earlier in this thread.

[FanPurewal]

dave, you're neglecting the timeframe in the modifier. it's not possible to be a "former X for 18 years".

you can be an X for 18 years, whatever X may be, but "former X" is something that lasts forever.

last forever...OMG crystal clear
genius

[jnelson0612]

:-)

[Sreeharshak368]

How is option D a run on sentence? Can someone explain in some detail?

Is it because "She was" creates an independent clause that should end with a semi colon or a full stop. The moment we use a comma between two independent clauses they become a run on sentecne