Find the part of the sentence that contains an error:
It remains unclear whether the board intends to implement the proposal (1) / or if the statement was merely a strategic play (2) / aimed at appeasing shareholders (3) / in light of the recent legal setbacks. (4)
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The correct answer is option 2 i.e. (2).
Error concept: related to parallelism and the use of the correlative conjunction "whether... or".
What is wrong: The use of "if" after "or" in part (2) is redundant and breaks the parallel structure established by "whether" in part (1).
Grammatical concept: The conjunction "whether" is used to introduce a choice between alternatives and is typically followed by a simple "or".
How to correct: To maintain parallelism, the word "if" should be removed from the second segment. The word "whether" from the first part already governs both the first and the second possibilities.
Correct phrase: or the statement was merely a strategic play.
Final sentence: It remains unclear whether the board intends to implement the proposal or the statement was merely a strategic play aimed at appeasing shareholders in light of the recent legal setbacks.
Hence, the chosen option is correct.