Saturday, June 27, 2015

Who Told the Neighbor?


The antecedent of "them" is unclear. Most likely, one of the boys told a neighbor, but according to this construction, a kitten may have told a neighbor something that lead to the kitten's death. I realize that an unnamed animal is to be called "it" according to the rules of grammar. This sentence could be clearer if the circled word were changed to "boys." 

Pronoun-antecedent Agreement

I can think of two ways to correct the disagreement between pronoun and antecedent. 
1. Keep the same antecedent and change the pronoun: Ask Our Driver How He Likes Working at.
2. Change the antecedent to agree with the gender-neutral pronoun. 
Ask Our Drivers How They Like Working  at. 

You Can Sell at a Sale

Friday, June 26, 2015

At Least Learn the Correct Use of Lease

Least and lease are not interchangeable. 

Where?

The phrase "in custody" is misplaced. As written, the man shot his girlfriend while she was in custody. The intended meaning is that he is in custody because he shot his girlfriend. 

Passive Voice and Editing Fossils

This is so very poorly written. It serves as a prime example as to why one should avoid writing in the passive voice. The first sentence is oddly worded. To correct sentences like these, ask who or what does the action. Put that word before the verb. In this sentence, ask who or what refers. One way to correct the first sentence would be as follows: Most people know of the "big white house with big white columns" on Alcoa Road.
 Each blue check mark denotes a verb in the passive voice. By putting the doer or speaker before the verb, the author could use fewer words and be much clearer. Errors 1-3 denote missing words or words in the wrong form. The fourth mark denotes the passive voice errors in the entire article. The last paragraph seems to suffer from editing fossils. 


To and Too

Tracy P. found this one at Harvest Foods.