Question: Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumbering her letters to anyone else.

(A) Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumbering
(B) Dickinson were written over a period that begins a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ended shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber
(C) Dickinson, written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and that ends shortly before Emily’s death in 1886 and outnumbering
(D) Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother, ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, and outnumbering
(E) Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber

Correct Answer: E
Explanation: The active verb “outnumber” is used in this answer choice with the independent subject “Emily Dickinson’s letters”. Therefore, it leads to give a complete thought and complete sentence. Moreover, the answer choice uses the clause “Emily Dickinson’s letters…outnumber her letters to anyone else” in a correct way. Furthermore, the expression “Emily Dickinson’s letters” correctly modifies with “which were written over…in 1886”. The answer choice E further satisfies the intended meaning of the sentence. The intended meaning is Emily Dickinson’s letters were written to Susan Huntington Dickinson over a span of time. The time began a few years prior to Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother. It ended shortly before Emily’s death in 1886. These letters outnumber Emily's letters as a separate action from anyone else. Additionally, the conjunction “and” is correctly used to link the phrases “beginning a few years…” and “ending shortly before…”. The answer choice also does not possess any errors of tense. Hence, option E is the correct answer. Let’s take a look at the other options:

Option A

The expression “outnumbering her letters to anyone else” is incorrectly used in this answer choice. This expression changes the intended meaning of the sentence. The commas+present participle (outnumbering) used in this answer choice also distorts the original meaning of the sentence. The intended meaning is Emily Dickinson’s letters were written to Susan Huntington Dickinson over a span of time. The time began a few years prior to Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother. It ended shortly before Emily’s death in 1886. These letters outnumber Emily's letters as a separate action from anyone else. The comma+present participle at the sentence end explains the clause placed before it or must be an effect of the previous clause. However, here it signifies neither. Hence, option A is the incorrect answer and hence gets eliminated.

Option B

“...Dickinson’s letters…written over a period that begins…and ended…, outnumber…” - in this answer choice “begins” and ended” are not structurally parallel. Moreover, the “outnumber” is used here as a verb. It distorts the structure of the sentence. The verb phrase should be combined with “and” to make the sentence correct. The correct sentence should be “...letters…were written…, and outnumber…”. Hence option B is incorrect since it does not satisfy the rules of grammar. Thus option B gets eliminated.

Option C

This answer choice does not have any active verb to modify the subject “Emily Dickinson’s letters”. Moreover, the answer choice does not create a complete sentence since “written” and “outnumbering” act as noun modifiers. Furthermore, the verb form in simple present tense “ends” is correctly used to indicate an action that occurs in the past. The answer choice also possesses a parallelism error in the sentence. Hence, option C is the incorrect answer since it does not satisfy the rules of grammar. Thus, option C gets eliminated.

Option D

The answer choice does not create a complete sentence since “which were written” and “outnumbering” act as noun modifiers. The statement in this answer choice does not have any active verb to modify the subject “Emily Dickinson’s letters”. Moreover, the answer choice D connects two elements in an incorrect way. The verb expressions “were written over…1886” and “outnumbering her …” with a comma are incorrectly used in the sentence. It is required to remember that two elements must be connected by a conjunction. Hence, option D is the incorrect answer since it does not satisfy the rules of grammar. Thus, option D gets eliminated.

“Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written”- is a GMAT sentence correction question of the GMAT exam. These sorts of questions include grammatical errors in the underlined part of the sentence. The candidates need to verify the subject-related error, verb phrases, and conjunction in the sentence. The candidates must examine whether the sentence is structurally parallel or not. The candidates need to choose the correct statement given in the options. The GMAT sentence correction section requires better grammar skills since the candidate has to identify common grammatical errors. GMAT sentence correction is a part of GMAT verbal.

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