In the sentence below, choose the best replacement for the underlined portion. If it is already correct, select “No improvement required.”

Neither of the two project proposals were approved by the review committee.

The correct option is was approved.

Step 1: Identify the subject of the sentence
In the sentence, "Neither of the two project proposals were approved by the review committee," the grammatical subject of the clause is the indefinite pronoun Neither. The phrase "of the two project proposals" is a prepositional phrase modifying "Neither".

Step 2: Apply the rule of Subject-Verb Agreement
When "Neither" is used as a pronoun referring to two items, it means "neither one" (not one nor the other) and is grammatically singular. Therefore, it requires a singular verb to maintain proper subject-verb agreement.

Step 3: Determine the correct verb form
The original sentence uses the plural past tense verb "were approved", which violates subject-verb agreement. The singular past tense form of the verb is was approved.

Step 4: Evaluate the given options
• have been approved: Incorrect because "have" is a plural verb.
• are approved: Incorrect because "are" is a plural verb.
• was approved: Correct because "was" is a singular verb that agrees with "Neither".
• No improvement required: Incorrect because the original phrase "were approved" contains a subject-verb agreement error.

Corrected Sentence:
"Neither of the two project proposals was approved by the review committee."