A careful analysis of the students' test scores reveals that

[giteshr]

Guide-8, SC, Chapter-5, page-73, Q12

A careful analysis of the students' test scores reveals that some of them must have cheated.

My answer:
A careful analysis of the students test scores reveals that some of them must have cheated.

pronouns
antecedents

Answer in the book:
A careful analysis of the students' test scores reveals that some students must have cheated.

Doubts:
1. Is my version of answer correct?
2. Does removal of possessive noun (students') solves the problem of antecedent?

Please help.

Thanks,
Gitesh

[giteshr]

Appreciate a response from the Staff.
Thanks,
Gitesh

[ChrisB]

Hi,

Great question. We have to be careful when dealing with possessive nouns.

A careful analysis of the students' test scores reveals that some of them must have cheated.

My answer:
A careful analysis of the students test scores reveals that some of them must have cheated.

Your answer is not correct because the pronoun them still refers back to test scores when we intend for them to refer back to students. Furthermore, student's no longer correctly modify test scores through the possessive form so the two are not correctly linked as they are in the original sentence.

"Student's test scores" clearly tells the reader which test scores are at issue here. Dropping the possessive form makes this a run on sentence in the literal sense where one clause ends with students and the other begins with test scores.

The book answer is required because "them" cannot be used in this sentence without causing some ambiguity between them and students or test scores.

Thanks,
Chris

[Nimal123]

Hi Chris,

Is this sentence correct?

A careful analysis of the test scores of students reveals that some of them must have cheated.

Please suggest

Thanks,
Nimit

[jnelson0612]

Hi Chris,

Is this sentence correct?

A careful analysis of the test scores of students reveals that some of them must have cheated.

Please suggest

Thanks,
Nimit

Hi Nimit,
I think it's okay if you include the article "the" before "students":
A careful analysis of the test scores of the students reveals that some of them must have cheated.

By adding "the" I am talking about some defined group of students. Without the "the" you could really be talking about all students. The "the" helps resolve the meaning problem.

I will say that this is a wordy way to write the sentence and that it's better to just say "the students' test scores".