Both statements together are sufficient

[onurtan737]

I come up with this sentence couple of times today. I strongly feel this is not the right way to put it. let me try to put it in a question

BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.
a)BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.
b)Statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.
c)BOTH statements are sufficient, but statements ALONE are not sufficient.
d)Statements are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.
e)Statements are TOGETHER, NEITHER one is ALONE.

I would go with B

[tim]

Technically you haven't asked a question here. And it's fascinating that you would "come up" with a sentence that copies the EXACT wording that shows up on every data sufficiency question ever. :) What's most disturbing here is that you KNOW the GMAT considers A the correct wording, again because it shows up on every data sufficiency question ever, and yet you seem to imply that A is incorrect. Why would you think this when you have incontrovertible evidence to the contrary?

[onurtan737]

First of all I am sorry for that my way of putting the question disturbed you, It was not my goal.

Actually, more than implying I have tried to explicitly say yes I think that wording is incorrect and what fascinated me the most is that it is used in every DS question in gmat! I, of course, don't have any "evidence" as I never had and never would have for any gmat verbal question, what I have is as always some personal thoughts. The real question in that case is whether you or others would agree with my reasoning or not?

Also, I disagree with there being evidence that GMATconsiders this as correct wording. I believe what you mean with evidence must directly come from SC questions of a GMAT approved source. For all other parts we cannot assume first priority of GMAT is to make the sentence absolutely correct in terms of SC. For instance, can we take a way a sentence from one of the CR questions and assume that it is absolutely the right way to make that sentence. I doubt that, especially considering GMAT hates redundant words. It may well be the case that, in an attemp to remove all ambiguity, GMAT may have chosen a wordy statement. That's what I believe going in my example, to make it absolutely obvious they have used this particular wording. But to my ears, it is absolutely and clearly wrong.

Here is why I think so,
Both can only be (again, no evidence, just personal convictions) used when a particular characteristic that can be possesed individually is shared by two elements. In other words, both is a word just for emphasis-omit it, still sentence is gramatically correct. Both balls are green, both balls are heavy, both balls are shining, price of both balls are more than 5 euros. Both bride and groom have curly hair, both John and Jake are born from the same parents. Green is a characteristic of a pen, it is shared with the other pen, thus both.

But it cannot be used when what the author is talking arises from the relation, interaction,combination of two elements. In other words, when you need at least to elements to have a particular interaction you cannot use both, there is no need to emphasize anything with both and it distorts the meaning by making reader to think about individually about elements. Both balls are standing together, both balls are tied to each other. Price of both balls add to 10, both the birde and the groom are married (to each other). Both Jake and John are brothers (to each other). Both is wrong, not simply redundant. It is so wrong that in many cases I needed to use "each other" after both to make it clear!

So, to which one of those two uses for both does our gmat wording resemble? To the second one obviously, since it is the whole point! It is not an individual characteristic that the sentence is refering to, on the contrary it is their holistic consideration. Statements are individually are not sufficient, together they are. So I believe correct wording should be statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER...

Let's put it into a more stringent test:
Both balls are more expensive than 5 euros. What does this mean? Each one of them is more expensive than 5 euros. Can you say both balls together are more expensive than 5 euros? No way!

[RonPurewal]

They included the word "both" to be nice -- in other words, to provide a little bit of extra clarity. It's not necessary, but it's certainly not wrong.