Pronouns, modifiers, and parallelism

#Pronouns

Two checks, always in this order:

1. Is there exactly one thing it could refer to? If a pronoun could point at two nouns, it's ambiguous and the answer is the choice that names the noun instead. The test does offer "just repeat the noun" as a correct answer, and students reject it because it sounds clumsy. Clumsy and correct beats elegant and ambiguous.

2. Does it match in number? This is where the points are:

• Each, every, either, neither, one, anyone, everyone, someone, nobody are singular. Each of the researchers submitted his or her report.
• A company, a team, a nation is it, not they, in US usage.
• Everyone is singular even though it clearly means many people.

Who vs. whom — who is the subject, whom the object. Substitute he/him: if him fits, use whom.

Its/it's, their/there/they're, whose/who's — expand the contraction. If the expansion is nonsense, the apostrophe is wrong.

#Modifiers

A modifying phrase attaches to whatever noun comes right after the comma. That's the whole rule, and the test builds every modifier question on breaking it.

✗ Having studied the samples for a decade, the conclusion was inescapable.

The conclusion did not study anything. The subject after the comma must be the one doing the studying:

✓ Having studied the samples for a decade, the researchers found the conclusion inescapable.

When you see a sentence opening with an -ing or -ed phrase and a comma, look immediately past the comma. If the noun there can't perform the action, that choice is out — regardless of how it reads.

The same applies to single words: only, just, almost, nearly attach to whatever they sit next to. She only reviewed three papers and She reviewed only three papers mean different things.

#Parallelism

Items in a list or a comparison must have the same grammatical form.

• ✗ The role requires analysing data, writing reports, and **to present** findings.
• ✓ ...analysing data, writing reports, and **presenting** findings.

Paired conjunctions must bracket parallel structures:

• not only ... but also
• either ... or
• neither ... nor
• both ... and

Whatever grammatical form follows the first half must follow the second: not only in the lab but also in the field, not not only in the lab but also the field.

Comparisons must compare like with like:

• ✗ The climate of Peru is milder than Chile. (a climate against a country)
• ✓ The climate of Peru is milder than **that of** Chile.

That of and those of exist for exactly this, and they're correct answers far more often than they look like they should be.