Writing > Improving Sentences
Part or all of the following sentence is underlined; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.
Lady Day, as Billie Holiday was usually called, was the finest jazz singer of her generation, and it was the opinion of her fans, she was the greatest jazz singer of the twentieth century.
(A) it was the opinion of her fans, she was
(B) the opinion of her fans was of her as
(C) her fans had this opinion, she was
(D) for her fans, the opinion was of her as
(E) for her fans, the opinion was of her as
The correct answer is E
Explanation
Choice (E) is correct. It avoids the sentence fragment error of the original by replacing the awkward and unnecessary “it was” with the preposition “in” to idiomatically state that Billie Holiday’s fans considered her “the greatest jazz singer of the twentieth century.”
