A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

[AliasgharA585]

Hi Ron

I wanted to know if we can apply the "one of the" rule here and can rule out other options and if yes then how according to that rule we can get to the correct answer...

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron

I wanted to know if we can apply the "one of the" rule here and can rule out other options and if yes then how according to that rule we can get to the correct answer...

what 'rule' is this?

[rohit.manglik]

Hi Ron,

As I studied in one of the "Thursdays with Ron" session, following usage of "being" is correct:

1) When it is used as a noun
2) When passive continuous verb tense is required to communicate the meaning. (In most of the official questions, I saw its correct usage as is being, was being etc)

I am not able to deduce whether the the usage of "being" fits in any of the cases above.

[RonPurewal]

did i actually use the name 'passive continuous'? because i have no clue what that even means.

in any case, this problem can be solved entirely with basic parallelism: there's only one choice in which all three works appear as "[author]'s [book]".
thus, this (somewhat weird) use of 'being' is just here as a distraction.

this is a very, very consistent feature of GMAC's SC problems, in fact:
if the construction of the correct answer is "weird", then eliminating the incorrect answers should be VERY straightforward/basic.
if you focus on the 'weird' parts, YOU WILL GET WORSE at sentence correction, because you will pay LESS attention to easier/more straightforward things!

you may want to note the particular form of 'being' used here, just for completeness's sake... but i would bet a huge amount of money that you will never actually NEED to be familiar with such a thing.

[JustinCKN]

Furthermore, how can I make sure "being" is right in a sentence?
Are there some take-aways about the usage of being

It follows the normal rules for "__ing" words.

Hi Ron:
I has drawn the lesson about Being from your previous posts :
(1) it is part of a PASSIVE-VOICE construction (note that such constructions require a form of "to be", so, if the passive voice is in the -ing form, that form will manifest as "being");
According to one expert, the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet other narrow criteria as that the breeds have relatively few founding members. (source: gmat prep)

or
(2) it is used as a ING noun (i.e., the action of "being something" is treated as a NOUN in the sentence).
Being followed by paparazzi 24 hours a day has caused many celebrities to become extremely hostile to strangers.

which of categories above does the Being in this subject belong to?
Thanks
JustinCKN.

[RonPurewal]

it doesn't really fit into either of those categories, and GMAC hasn't used any other examples like this one (as far as i know)... but, again, read the post directly above yours—especially the red part.

this problem can be solved ENTIRELY with basic parallelism, so, that stuff is there TO DISTRACT YOU. you're not supposed to be paying attention to that part.

this is something that happens fairly often on this exam, actually.
if a problem can be solved VERY EASILY with FUNDAMENTAL principles, then it's likely that the other stuff in there is meant to distract you.

[JustinCKN]

it doesn't really fit into either of those categories, and GMAC hasn't used any other examples like this one (as far as i know)... but, again, read the post directly above yours—especially the red part.

this problem can be solved ENTIRELY with basic parallelism, so, that stuff is there TO DISTRACT YOU. you're not supposed to be paying attention to that part.

this is something that happens fairly often on this exam, actually.
if a problem can be solved VERY EASILY with FUNDAMENTAL principles, then it's likely that the other stuff in there is meant to distract you.

Yes. Ron.
I have been distracted so many times by the insignificant part in the sentence correction,but this time I can solve this problem with the fundamental principle,using the lesson you have showed me earlier.
Thanks for your precious experience.
Have a nice day.
JustinCKN.

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.

[NicoleT643]

Hi Ron,

I totally understand the parallelism you talk about. Other than the parallelism, I want to state some of my observation, hope you can help to check if it is correct, thanks.

I want to ask the modifier "including" in choice B and C. It modifies Black Americans. Since a single Black American can not include other people, choice C is out.
Also in Choice B, including modifies people, and the right part of including is the list of books which is not people, choice B is out.

Is it one of the way to eliminate B & C? thank you.

[NicoleT643]

Hi Ron,

I also found A is very tempting because it appears that the others modifies black Americans, the others ( black americans ) being Richard and Ralph.
I did not think of parallelism at the first glance of the sentence; instead, I thought of modifier issues. Because "the others" is very close to Black Americans and I automatically assume that "the others" modifies "Americans".

However further reflection reading you post, The others modifies "one of the three best novels written by Black Americans", the only think that can be "the others" is book/novel not people, because there is a hint "one", am I correct?

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

"the others" means **THE** others—namely, the rest of a COMPLETE list.
(this isn't something you'd need to memorize... just make up your own example with "The others are _______" and you'll see that it has to work this way.)

the only COMPLETE LIST in the problem is a list of 3 NOVELS. (obviously we're not giving a complete list of all black americans!)

[prepp]

Hi Ron,

I have read on forums the possible correct usage of "being"

a) As a past participle

Being followed by paparazzi 24 hours a day has caused many celebrities to become extremely hostile to strangers

Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear

In this sentence, being doesn't satisfy any of the above statements. How is this the correct answer choice then.

I do understand parallelism is important but I at once saw being and rejected the answer choice just like in some of the OG answers.

Please help explain!

Isn't generally "being" is considered wrong or wordy in GMAT ? I saw copuple of GMATPrep problems that have "being" in the correct answer. That puzzles me. I used to ignore the answer choice just by spotting "being" in it. Is this a bad strategy ? Has anything changed ? Ron, Stacey, Emily, Jonathan, please help !!

this is not an absolute rule, nor should it ever have been put forward as such by our instructors.

IN GENERAL, though, MOST choices we see with "being" are incorrect. hence the observation.

--

in many cases with "being", you can simply omit "being". for instance:
jimmy, being an accountant, knows the tax code well.
you can revise this to just...
jimmy, an accountant, knows the tax code well.

in this case, you can't just kill the "being", so you should consider it as a legitimate option (which, as it turns out, it actually is in this case).

[RonPurewal]

remember—the no. 1 purpose of GMAT SC is to test your ability to PRIORITIZE.
there are a small number of VERY basic, VERY fundamental types of issues that, taken together, solve the vast majority of GMAT SC problems.

when a problem contains an obvious, black-and-white example of one of these fundamental issues, DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO ANYTHING ELSE AT ALL until you have resolved that issue!
the purpose of just about everything ELSE in those choices is SPECIFICALLY TO DISTRACT YOU!

__

in this problem, the sentence mentions 3 books.
these should be mentioned in parallel forms. PARALLELISM is the no. 1 most important / most frequently tested issue on GMAT SC. if you are considering things like "being" before obvious non-parallelism, then this problem (among many, many others) is designed SPECIFICALLY to PUNISH YOUR approach!

in the non-underlined part, we have
Jean Toomer's Cane

there's exactly ONE answer choice that also expresses the other two books as "[author]'s [title]".
the other four choices are VERY CLEARLY non-parallel.
done.
paying attention to other things (like "being") in this problem is a HUGE mistake!