Question
How should this sentence be revised?
To promote their club, a bake sale will be sponsored by members of the debate team on Wednesday.
- ATo promote their club, on Wednesday a bake sale will be sponsored by members of the debate team.
- BOn Wednesday, to promote their club, a bake sale will be sponsored by members of the debate team.
- CTo promote their club, members of the debate team will sponsor a bake sale on Wednesday.
- DMembers of the debate team, on Wednesday to promote their club, will sponsor a bake sale.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks for the correct revision of the sentence in the box.
A. Incorrect. The revisions do not fix the error that “to promote their club” modifies “a bake sale.”
B. Incorrect. The revisions do not fix the error that “to promote their club” modifies “a bake sale.”
C. CORRECT. The revision is correct because it includes the phrase “to promote their club” clearly modifying “members of the debate team.”
D. Incorrect. While the revision clarifies that “to promote their club” relates to the “members of the debate team,” the rest of the sentence is poorly written because the insertion of “on Wednesday to promote their club” in the middle of the sentence interrupts the main clause, “Members of the debate team will sponsor a bake sale.”
Question analysis
This sentence-structure question gives one sentence about a debate team’s bake sale, planned for Wednesday to promote their club, and asks how it should be revised. The four rewrites shuffle the same three phrases into different orders, so students must check which word each phrase modifies and whether the whole sentence still reads naturally.
- NYS standards
- 7L1 grammar and usage conventions
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Placing a phrase so that it describes the right word is part of the grade 7 language standards, and this one-sentence item is a classic case. Choosing the rewrite that is both logical and smooth is typical grade 7 editing.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly evaluate
- What makes it hard
- A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Every choice must be checked minor
- A very close wrong answer minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 7, 92 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The sentence makes sense on a first reading, which is exactly why its error slips past students who edit by ear. Asking who is promoting the club exposes it and removes both rewrites that keep the bake sale as the subject, however neatly they are punctuated. What is left is a judgment of style, and the smoother rewrite keeps the subject and verb together instead of interrupting them with two phrases.
A rule that doesn't sound wrong moderate Working it out
“To promote their club” has to describe whatever comes right after its comma, and that is “a bake sale”; the meaning is so plain that few students notice the sale doing the promoting. (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The original is passive, “a bake sale will be sponsored by members of the debate team,” which places the people who act after the verb, far from the phrase that should describe them. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Every choice must be checked minor Choosing the answer
Each rewrite rearranges the opening phrase, the time phrase and the main clause, so each has to be read through to see what follows “To promote their club” and whether anything splits a subject from its verb. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
A very close wrong answer minor Choosing the answer
Two rewrites make the team members the subject of “will sponsor” with identical words; they part only on where the two phrases go, at the edges of the sentence or wedged between subject and verb. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Ask who is really doing the promoting, then read each rewrite aloud in full, checking which words follow the opening phrase and whether the sentence reads smoothly from start to finish.
Traps
- Misplaced modifier: A describing word or phrase that attaches to the wrong word, or to nothing in the sentence.
The wrong answers, classified
A Misplaced modifier (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Moves “on Wednesday” ahead of the bake sale as if the time phrase were the misplaced part, but the sentence stays passive and the sale is still what “To promote their club” describes.
B Misplaced modifier (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Is drawn by the tidy commas around both fronted phrases, yet “a bake sale” still comes straight after them, so the sale remains the thing promoting the club.
D Misplaced modifier (Connors & Lunsford, 1988)
Rightly makes “Members of the debate team” the subject but parks “on Wednesday to promote their club” between it and “will sponsor,” a clumsy break the smoother rewrite avoids.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
You need the best way to rewrite the sentence. This is about a modifier. A modifier is a group of words that describes something else in the sentence. Here the opening words, “To promote their club,” are the modifier. Your job is to check what they describe.
Learn the rule for opening phrases
A sentence may start with a describing phrase and a comma. Then the phrase describes whatever comes right after the comma. So the one doing the action should come next.
Wrong: To get good seats, the line was joined early by Ana. A line can’t want good seats.
Right: To get good seats, Ana joined the line early.Find the problem in the sentence
To promote a club means to get people interested in it. In the sentence, the words right after the comma are “a bake sale.” So the sentence seems to say the bake sale is promoting the club. But a bake sale doesn’t have a club. The club belongs to the “members of the debate team.” They should come right after the comma, and they should do the action: they “will sponsor a bake sale.”
Check each choice
- A is wrong. It moves “on Wednesday” forward. But the bake sale is still what the opening phrase describes.
- B is wrong. It puts “On Wednesday,” at the front. The commas look neat, but “a bake sale” still follows “to promote their club.”
- C is right. “Members of the debate team” comes right after the comma. They are the ones promoting their club.
- D is wrong. The members come first. But “on Wednesday to promote their club” is stuck between the subject (who does the action) and the verb (the action word).
Watch out: D is tempting, since the members do the promoting. But its long middle part breaks up the main idea.
Choose the answer
C fixes the modifier and reads smoothly: To promote their club, members of the debate team will sponsor a bake sale on Wednesday. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer. Like C, it makes the members the ones who promote the club. But D pushes a long phrase between “Members of the debate team” and “will sponsor.” C keeps the subject and the verb side by side, so it is easier to read.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
