[ZinGirl]

"Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African-Americans have endured."

Interesting choice of sentences to "correct", anyway. I'm sure I'm being sensitive....but do we always have to have an agenda? Could they NOT have formed a sentence without throwing in the race card?

[netmilsmom]

What is the correct answer?

[JOE6PAK]

"BILL CLINTON'S PENI$ enables him to create novels that arise from and express the injustices WHITE HOUSE INTERNS have endured."

...well WHY NOT?

[byteback]

I thought the correction would be

Toni Morrison's genes enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African-Americans have endured.

[Freedom2specul8]

I thought you might enjoy seeing this. I didn't know a person's name could be used as an adjective?

[Lil'freeper]

Including the word 'genius' renders the entire sentence false.

[b4its2late]

It ain't no big deal.....

[MHT]

I thought it was in error because the hyphen was not between Afrian and American!

[xrp]

I'm confused. What's an 'African-American'?

[MHT]

That is, the NY Times paper itself had the hyphen missing from their run of this article. Typical NYT!

[ThinkDifferent]

Keegan said pronouns should only refer to nouns and in this case Morrison's name is used as an adjective.

I'm not buying that. If "Tom's job requires him to travel" is wrong, what's the correct form? There's no ambiguity with the pronoun.

[yarddog]

That plug for a living but somewhat controversial person is clearly improper.

I would feel the same way if there was a plug for Ronald Reagan who I think is a really great man, but a test is not the place for an editorial opinion.

[RightWhale]

"Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African-Americans have endured."

. . . pronouns should only refer to nouns and in this case Morrison's name is used as an adjective

The usage is correct. The pronoun reference is to a continuing subject in the essay and is not a reference to Toni Morrison's . On top of that, Toni Morrison's is not an adjective, it is a noun in the possessive case. However, in spite of it's outstanding adequacies, the sentence is a poor item for a standardized test because the metaphor is reversed.

[zencycler]

create novels that arise from...the injustices African-Americans have endured

At first read, I thought the error was that the creation of a novel does not arise from an event, but from ideas and interpretations of the author inspired by that event.

My correction would be to delete the word create and insert "develop ideas for":

Toni Morrison's genius enables her to develop ideas for novels that arise from and express the injustices African-Americans have endured.

[Drango]

I have a hairy navel.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

"Genius enables Toni Morrison to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African-Americans have endured."

Or.."Her genius enables Toni Morrison to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African-Americans have endured."

I suppose if it was a novel about Jesse Jackson and the Democratic Party it could be valid.

BTW: You need to change your tagline, Cheney is running.;-)

[ricpic]

Wow. A twofer. With one sentence, the communists over at the Educational Testing Service of Princeton N.J., can reinforce both white guilt and black resentment in young impressionable minds. Yup. America truly is being eaten out from within.

[AdamSelene235]

A review of Toni Morrison's genius from Amazon:

If you like reading descriptions about snot, phlegm, vomit, swallowing globs of Vicks salve, child rape, animal abuse by angry children, sexual satisfaction produced by loose sanitary napkins, dogs choking on poisoned meat, and preachers who can't resist female children's blossoming bosoms, and an unhappy ending, then this is the book for you.

[SpyGuy]

It's all part of the Leftist brainwashing of America's youth.

A few weeks ago, I was helping an acquaintance with her computer at her home, when one of her young daughters (4th-5th grade) returned home from school. The daughter proceeded to spout off about how President Bush was invading Iraq, that we shouldn't be at war, that the US is an international bully, etc. Hmmm...I wonder where a 10-year old would get such strong (and slanted) opinions about national and international politics and policies?

If you send your children to public schools, you are--in fact--sending them to Leftist indoctrination centers. See how the Left even works their propaganda into standardized tests? It is a constant and well-orchestrated assault on their brains and their moral character. It has been developed and refined over many years, by many people, and with many dollars (your tax dollars, of course).

Even IF you teach your children core conservative values at home, you will never be able to compete with this assault. Children, in the formative years of their lives, spend the majority of their waking hours besieged by this onslaught of programmed propaganda and indoctrination from the public schools and the mass media. Exposed in this way, the seeds of Leftism WILL be planted in your child...and some of those seeds WILL take root.

Save your children: pull them out of public schools now!

[workerbee]

Isn't the real issue how the student feels about the sentence? Correct grammar is soooo confining to one's ability to express oneself.

[Prodigal Son]

Bollocks. "Her" is clearly referring to "Genius" rather than to Morrison.