In her two major series 'Memory Test' and 'Autobiography,' painter Howardena Pindell explored themes _______ healing, self-discovery, and memory by...
GMAT Standard English Conventions : (Grammar) Questions
In her two major series 'Memory Test' and 'Autobiography,' painter Howardena Pindell explored themes _______ healing, self-discovery, and memory by cutting and sewing back together pieces of canvas and inserting personal artifacts, such as postcards, into some of the paintings.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
of
of,
of—
of:
Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!
Sentence Structure
- In her two major series 'Memory Test' and 'Autobiography,'
- painter Howardena Pindell
- explored themes of(?) healing, self-discovery, and memory
- by cutting and sewing back together pieces of canvas
- and inserting personal artifacts, such as postcards,
- into some of the paintings.
- explored themes of(?) healing, self-discovery, and memory
- painter Howardena Pindell
Understanding the Meaning
Let's read from the beginning:
'In her two major series 'Memory Test' and 'Autobiography,''
- This tells us the context – we're talking about two specific art series that painter Howardena Pindell created.
'painter Howardena Pindell explored themes'
- Here's the main action: Pindell explored certain themes in her work.
Now here's where we need to fill in the blank: 'themes of(?)'
Let's look at our choices:
- of (no punctuation)
- of, (comma)
- of— (dash)
- of: (colon)
What comes right after? 'healing, self-discovery, and memory'
So the phrase would be: 'themes of [punctuation?] healing, self-discovery, and memory'
What do we notice about the structure here?
- The word 'of' is connecting 'themes' to what those themes are about
- It's showing us which themes – the themes OF healing, OF self-discovery, and OF memory
- This is a straightforward prepositional phrase
- 'Of' directly connects to the list that follows
- The items in the list are what complete the phrase 'themes of...'
- When a preposition like 'of' introduces what comes next, it connects directly – with no punctuation in between
- Just like we say 'the color of the sky' or 'a list of names'
- We don't write 'the color of, the sky' or 'a list of: names'
So we need of with no punctuation after it. The answer is A.
Now let's read the rest to see the complete picture:
'by cutting and sewing back together pieces of canvas and inserting personal artifacts, such as postcards, into some of the paintings.'
This describes HOW Pindell explored these themes – through specific artistic techniques involving cutting, sewing, and incorporating personal items into her artwork.
GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED
Prepositions Connect Directly to Their Objects
When you use a preposition (like "of," "in," "on," "with," "about," etc.), it connects directly to what follows without any punctuation in between. The preposition and its object(s) work together as a unit (called a prepositional phrase in grammar terms).
Pattern: Preposition + Object(s) – No punctuation between them
Examples:
- Correct: "a study of climate change"
- "of" directly connects to "climate change"
- Incorrect: "a study of, climate change"
- The comma breaks the natural connection
- Correct: "themes of healing, self-discovery, and memory"
- "of" directly connects to the list of themes
- The commas in the list separate the items from each other, not from "of"
- Incorrect: "themes of: healing, self-discovery, and memory"
- The colon incorrectly interrupts the prepositional phrase
In our question:
- "themes of healing, self-discovery, and memory" is a complete prepositional phrase
- "Of" must connect directly to the list without intervening punctuation
- This is why Choice A (of) is correct
of
✓ Correct
- Correct as explained in the solution above.
of,
✗ Incorrect
- Creates an error by putting a comma between the preposition "of" and what it's connecting to
- A preposition needs to directly connect to its object without punctuation separating them
- This would be like writing "She lives in, Boston" – grammatically incorrect
of—
✗ Incorrect
- Creates an error by using a dash after the preposition
- Dashes set off explanatory information or create emphasis, but "of" is a preposition that must directly connect to what follows
- The list isn't being set off as extra information – it's the essential completion of "themes of"
of:
✗ Incorrect
- Creates an error by using a colon after "of"
- While colons can introduce lists, they must follow a complete statement
- "Explored themes of" is incomplete on its own – it needs what comes after
- The preposition "of" already does the job of connecting to the list; a colon would be redundant and incorrect