Sentence Correction Practice

Sentence Correction 13 / 50

Choose the option that best corrects the grammatical or logical error in the underlined fragment.

Neither the intricacies of the new policy directives nor the rationale behind its implementation were clearly articulated to the frontline staff, resulting in widespread confusion.

A. (No change)
B. was clearly articulated
C. had been clearly articulated
D. are clearly articulated

1. Identification of Error: Subject-Verb Agreement with 'Neither/Nor' construction.
2. Grammatical Rule: When two subjects are joined by 'neither...nor', the verb agrees with the subject closer to it. Here, 'the rationale behind its implementation' (singular) is closer to the verb than 'the intricacies' (plural). Therefore, the verb must be singular.
3. Option Elimination:
A. Incorrect — 'were' is plural and does not agree with the singular subject 'rationale'.
B. Correct — 'was clearly articulated' correctly uses a singular verb 'was' to agree with 'rationale'.
C. Incorrect — 'had been' changes the tense unnecessarily from past simple to past perfect, which is not warranted by the context.
D. Incorrect — 'are' is a plural verb in the present tense, which is incorrect both in number and tense.

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