Identify the error in the sentence: 'Having submitted the scholarship application online, the confirmation email was received by the student.'

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: C. dangling modifier

  1. Step 1: The introductory participial phrase 'Having submitted the scholarship application online' has no logical agent to modify in the passive main clause. Because 'the confirmation email' is the subject of the clause, the sentence absurdly suggests that the confirmation email submitted the application. Answer: dangling modifier. Why not the others: "faulty parallel structure" violates grammatical symmetry across items in a coordinated series; "subject-verb disagreement" occurs when the subject noun and finite verb fail to match in number; "comma splice error" joins two independent clauses using only a comma without a conjunction.

Practise more Structural Error Spotting and Stylistic Inconsistency.

Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed State Certificate of Language Proficiency (KPG) English mock tests.

Identify the error in… | State Certificate of Language Proficiency (KPG) English