[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?

[Bullish]

The correct answer is Tony Morrison is NOT a genius.

She is a racist, moronic, leftist twit.

[IronJack]

I'm not sure I accept this. Technically, "Toni Morrison's genius" could be translated to "the genius of Toni Morrison." In the latter case, Ms. Morrison's name is the object of a preposition -- i.e., a noun. True, the prepositional (actually a genitive) phrase is used as an adjective, but the name itself is still a proper nominative.

In the test question, "Toni Morrison's" is used as an adjective modifying "genius," but remains a genitive (possessive) noun.

In the sentence "My dog has fleas," is "My" an adjective or a possessive pronoun?

[Redcloak]

He's wrong.

Take the original sentence...

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

...and now pare it down to the subject, verb, and object...

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

Those three words are the guts of the sentence. "Her" is the proper pronoun to use because it is an objective pronoun and it refers to Toni Morrison, not to her alleged genius. No other objective pronoun makes sense here.

[Cboldt]

"It enables her to write."

ostensible -ping-

LOL at the caller for F.Christian -- what an inside joke, no offense meant in any direction.

[DownWithGreenspan]

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

The correct answer is "False". This is a true-false test, isn't it?

DWG

[PeaceBeWithYou]

A google of the sentance in question revealed the following from the College Board

---

Explanation of the Problem

A problem with Writing Skills question 10, in Section 5 of the Tuesday edition of the 2002 PSAT/NMSQT, created the need to rescore the test without the question. The question and directions for answering it are reproduced below:

Directions: The following sentences test your knowledge of grammar, usage, diction (choice of words), and idiom. Some sentences are correct. No sentence contains more than one error. You will find that the error, if there is one, is underlined and lettered. Elements of the sentence that are not underlined will not be changed. In choosing answers, follow the requirements of standard written English. If there is an error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence correct and fill in the corresponding oval on your answer sheet. If there is no error, fill in answer oval E.

The Question:
10. Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustice
ABC
African Americans have endured. No error
DE

The intended answer was (E), "No error." Choice (A), however, could also be considered correct. Although it is clear that the pronoun "her" in choice (A) can only refer to Toni Morrison, some usage manuals advise against such a construction on the grounds that a pronoun should not refer to a noun in the possessive case ("Toni Morrison's") because the noun is functioning as a modifier. If this advice were to be followed here, choice (A) would have to be revised to read "Morrison to create."

---

The question was thrown out because it had 2 potentially correct answers according to some usage manuals.

(If the formating doesn't reproduce properly here, click on the link to see the original.)

[aberaussie]

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?

We have homeschooled our kids for eleven years, but they do take the same standardized tests that many public and private school students do - ITBS, PSAT, SAT... They tell me that they get very frustrated with the politically correct agenda of many of the reading selections and questions. My daughter finally realized that she had to get into that mindset if she was going to get the score on the SAT that she needed (1450). When she did, she increased her verbal score by 110 points.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Apart from the grammar, why are there "journalism" teachers in high school?

[Porterville]

The boxer with AIDS write books about black people??? My God, who'd of thunk it??? A little white boy from the East became a big bad boxer, caught AIDS, and is now a Black Activist...WOW!!!

[Porterville]

They spelt his name wrong on the test also it's "Tommy" not "Toni"

[dasboot]

The sentence is correct: no error.

[bart99]

I am soooo glad I don't have to take those tests anymore...... I'd never pass.

If there are a mess of questions like that one on the PSATs these days, it's not a wonder that the overall scores of our kids is lower these days. That question is like a trick question. It has no business being on any test designed to determine a students capability to enter a univeristy.

No wonder our public schools are failing. The tests suck as measurement tools. And the teachers union is so powerful, the only recourse *hehe* is school choice and vouchers. Perhaps there they can teach kids how to ace the three Rs and let them 'fail' on a test question like this one. Who really cares if ANY kid got that question right or wrong? god!! Where is this heading?

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

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

Barf, barf and triple barf. Forget the bad grammar-the content of this sentence is what really offends. And these people (the PSAT people) presume to sit in judgement on the intellectual worthiness of American youth?

FREEP THE PSATS!!!

[PistolPaknMama]

I was thinking the same thing. Every word fed to our young has an agenda.

[liberalnot]

i saw this in the nyt print edition.

the real error is the social engineering that has toni morrison as a "genius".

[poppytpee]

The sentence is wrong, because there ain't no such critter as an African-American or hyphenated American of any kind.

So there!!!!

[Lancey Howard]

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

A few years ago the race hustlers were hollering about the use of the word "regatta" in an SAT question. They said it was racist. Yet this pandering, politically correct question featuring an over-rated black author is fine and dandy. Heaven forfend whites should complain.

[Rome2000]

The correct choice on the multiple choice exam was originally listed as "no error" by the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, N.J.

In "Ebonics", not only is it not an error, it be Shakespeare.

[philetus]

Human resources manager:We're sorry MS. Rodham, but you used the pronoun in the sentance improperly. I'm afraid we can't hire you to work at this massage parlor. You might try politics.

[MississippiMan]

Could they NOT have formed a sentence without throwing in the race card?

Nope, not liberals. They inject it everywhere and into everything. Tis how brainwashing works, and it has served them well. Their Committee Against Word Waste probably came up with it.

MM