Sentence Correction

tnaim wrote:I would like to know what the appropriate rules are on placing prepositional phrases.
This question has triggered my quest to find out where I should be putting prepositional phrases.

The nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote the only eyewitness account of the great eruption of Vesuvius in two letters to the historian Tacitus.

(A) The nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote the only eyewitness account of the great eruption of Vesuvius in two letters to the historian Tacitus.
(B) To the historian Tacitus, the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote two letters, being the only eyewitness accounts of the great eruption of Vesuvius.
(C) The only eyewitness account is in two letters by the nephew of Pliny the Elder writing to the historian Tacitus an account of the great eruption of Vesuvius.
(D) Writing the only eyewitness account, Pliny the Elder's nephew accounted for the great eruption of Vesuvius in two letters to the historian Tacitus.
(E) In two letters to the historian Tacitus, the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote the only eyewitness account of the great eruption of Vesuvius

lunarpower wrote:stuart's post is a nice summary, and he has included a helpful takeaway (place the modifiers as close as possible to the things they modify).
do note, though, that "as close as possible" can sometimes, though infrequently, still be pretty far away.

specifically, the problem with (a) is that it seems to be saying that vesuvius actually erupted in a couple of letters!
that's not ok.

the only part of stuart's post that i don't find completely accurate is this:

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:
(C) uses no internal punctuation at all - stringing together so many phrases without any commas is unlikely to ever be correct.

i don't know for sure one way or the other, but i wouldn't be so sure of that.

for one, check out OG11 #118, in which the correct answer is
Students in the metropolitan school district are so lacking in math skills that it will be difficult to absorb them into a city economy becoming ever more dependent on information-based industries.
that one also lacks any sort of internal punctuation (and it's even longer than the choices here), but it's still correct.

is there any empirical evidence one way or the other? i.e., has anyone collected any data on the frequency of punctuation vs. correctness of choices, to facilitate guessing?

lunarpower wrote:

bdevas01 wrote:Awesome point, but aren't the directions for the SC section to choose the best possible answer out of the five choices? A lot of times all 5 answers are horribly structured and worded, but one is worded slightly less horrible. So in your example, question # 118 probably had 4 other choices which really stunk...right?

yes ... but i'm not sure what that has to do with the current discussion.

that example was merely meant as a counterexample to the claim that "long sentences without internal punctuation are wrong". i just happened to recall that particular example off the top of my head; i'm sure there are others.

stuart's original comment does, however, suggest an interesting angle for research into the official problems -- if so inclined, one could conduct a formal study into the correlation between correct/incorrect and the frequency of internal punctuation.
my instinct is to think that there would be little correlation -- certainly not enough of a correlation to produce a reliable guessing method -- but i can't be sure unless a study is conducted.

does anyone know whether there are any such studies?

lunarpower wrote:[the long answer is:
if a sentence STARTS with a prepositional phrase followed by a comma, then that prepositional phrase will pretty much always modify the CLAUSE/ACTION that follows.

so, in the sentence above, "in two letters to the historian tacitus" modifies the following action ("...wrote the only eyewitness account..."). that makes perfect sense.
i'm sure this is a hard rule, since i can't currently think of any examples to the contrary (i.e., i can't think of any examples in which prepositional phrase + comma refers to the following noun).
--> in this case, "on the table" modifies the noun (book).
i read the book on the subway
--> in this case, "on the subway" modifies the action/clause ((i) read the book).

in these kinds of instances, you have to do two things --
(1) use your common sense to determine the meaning of the sentence, and check whether the attribution of the prepositional phrase can work (either with the noun or with the clause);
and

lunarpower wrote: stuart's original comment does, however, suggest an interesting angle for research into the official problems -- if so inclined, one could conduct a formal study into the correlation between correct/incorrect and the frequency of internal punctuation.
my instinct is to think that there would be little correlation -- certainly not enough of a correlation to produce a reliable guessing method -- but i can't be sure unless a study is conducted.

does anyone know whether there are any such studies?

lunarpower wrote:

mundasingh123 wrote:

2)What does a participial modifier that begins a sentence modify ? action / noun?

what kind of participle?

sorry ron,I should have clarified this
A beginning present participle or a past participle
A present participle
swimming with swift strokes,John crossed over to the other side of the pool.

Who is taking advantage?John.so is "swimming with swift strokes" modifying John
In what manner did he cross ? swimming with swift strokes.So is "swimming with swift strokes" modifying action "crossed"

A past participle:
Compelled by the majority of the oppositional party,the senator decided to support the motion.
Here who is compelled ? John
But cant "Compelled by the majority" also modify "decided to support" as "compelled" describes the reason behind the decision to support.
Thanks ,Ron