Comma plus present participle for cause effect relationship
Description: In this brief video, we will cover the use of the “comma + present participle (“verb+ing”)” construction to show cause-effect relationships. This is a very important GMAT concept and can be used to make many complex traps in sentence correction.
Comma Plus Present Participle for Cause Effect Relationship
The introduction of a present participle after a comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship. This is a very frequently tested concept on the GMAT, and in this brief video we will cover the use of the “comma + present participle (“verb+ing”)” construction to show cause-effect relationships. To understand this concept, please take a close look at the following example.
Example 1 –
Scientists discovered a vaccine, putting an end to the epidemic.
Here, “Scientists discovered a vaccine” is a cause, and “putting an end to the epidemic” is an effect; the comma plays the role of establishing this cause-effect relationship. Please keep in mind that the use of the past participle “discovered” alongside the present participle “putting” does not constitute a parallelism error here. Parallelism is required where the roles played by the parts of a sentence are similar; here, as the “comma + present participle (“verb+ing”)” construction denotes a cause effect relationship, the roles played by the two participles are different. One is the cause, and the other is the effect.
The structure of this sentence could also be reversed, as in the following example.
Example 2 –
Discoveringa vaccine, scientists put an end to the epidemic.
Here, you have the present participle in the cause part and the past participle in the effect part after the comma, and this structure is perfectly valid. Once again, do not look for parallelism in this sentence; the two verbs play different roles; one if the cause, and the other is the effect.
Traps
Very interesting traps can be made on the GMAT sentence correction with the help of this concept. Let us take a look at a few such traps. Below, you will see three GMAT like sentences. Please go through the sentences and try to identify whether the underlined part is correct.
1. For members of the ancient Viking community in Scandinavia, the extensive wooden structure centered on a massive ash tree and known as the Uppsala temple was a critical religious center,
honoring the gods, Odin, Thor, and Fryer.
2. In his book, Memoirs 15th century chronicler Jacques du Clercq decried the city of Arras’s justice system,
harshly punishing such seeming lesser crimes as theft and public misconduct, yet did not consider widespread violence a major threat to the social order.
3. In his book, Memoirs 15th century chronicler Jacques du Clercq decried the city of Arras’s justice system,
which harshly punished such seeming lesser crimes as theft and public misconduct, yet did not consider widespread violence a major threat to the social order.
1. Here, you have the present participle “honoring” after a comma, so we need to check if the preceding part of the sentence, “For members…was a critical religious center”, is a cause. So, yes; this part of the sentence is a cause. It reads that for members of a particular community, a certain structure known as the Uppsala temple was a critical religious center; this is the cause, and the effect is “honoring the gods”. This sentence is alright.
2. Let us look at the second sentence now. Here, the sentence mentions a book
“Memoirs”, then extra information about the book, and then “harshly punishing”. The introduction of the present participle (“verb+ing” – “punishing” in this case) after a comma when there is not a cause-effect relationship at play renders this sentence incorrect.
3. Now, let us look at the third sentence. This sentence introduces the phrase “which harshly punished”; “comma + which” construction will refer to the noun before the comma, “system”. So, this sentence conveys that the system harshly punished seeming lesser crimes. As there is no cause-effect relationship here, there is no need for the “comma + present participle (“verb+ing”)” construction here. This sentence is all right.
This article has deliberately been kept brief; for a more elaborate explanation, please refer to the Experts’ Global Stage One Sentence Correction videos.
