Question: A firm that specializes in the analysis of handwriting claims from a one-page writing sample that it can assess more than three hundred personality traits, including enthusiasm, imagination, and ambition.

(A) from a one-page writing sample that it can assess
(B) from a one-page writing sample it has the ability of assessing
(C) the ability, from a one-page writing sample, of assessing
(D) to be able, from a one-page writing sample, to assess
(E) being able to assess, from a one-page writing sample,

Correct Answer: D
Explanation: There is actually no pronoun error in the original sentence. The only error is the placement of the prepositional phrase beginning with ‘from’. When a pronoun begins a clause, it usually refers to the subject of the previous clause, even if there are other nouns in between; there is no ambiguity in such a case. Here, the pronoun ‘it’ refers to the subject of the first clause, ‘a firm’. Using choice D, the sentence becomes, “A firm that specialises in the analysis of handwriting claims to be able, from a one-page writing sample, to assess more than three hundred personality traits, including enthusiasm, imagination, and ambition.” The prepositional phrase "from a one-page writing sample" acts as an adverb, modifying the infinitive "to assess".

to be able, from a one-page writing sample, to assess- Correct. Able to is the correct idiom. Eliminates all the errors.

Let’s examine the other available options.

Option A
from a one-page writing sample that it can assess- Incorrect. Incorrect pronoun reference. Use of “it" is not ambiguous, but "from a one-page writing sample" must be separated using a comma because of relative pronouns. “that” is placed next to a sample indicating that the sample can assess traits, but it is not the intended meaning of the sentence.

Option B
from a one-page writing sample it has the ability of assessing- Incorrect. Same error as in option A. Ability must be followed by an Infinitive.

Option C
the ability, from a one-page writing sample, of assessing- Incorrect. Incorrect idion. Ability must be followed by an Infinitive. "from a one page sample" modifies "claims", but because wrong idiom "ability of" is used. The correct idiom is 'the ability to assess'. However, that idiom would not work so well in this particular context; it would be used more to discuss the abstract notion of this ability.

Option E
being able to assess, from a one-page writing sample,- Incorrect. Unidiomatic, does not convey the original meaning. "being able" is incorrectly used. This option has 2 errors. 1) “Being”should not be used. 2) Placement of "from a one-page writing sample" changes the meaning.

“A firm that specializes in the analysis of handwriting claims from a”- is a GMAT sentence correction question. These sorts of questions come up with grammatical errors in the underlined part of the sentence. The candidates need to select the correct statement given in the options. The GMAT sentence correction section demands good skills in grammar since the candidate has to identify common grammatical errors. GMAT sentence correction is a part of GMAT verbal.

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