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Please pardon me, but...

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by slhood » Tue Mar 30, 2010 6:32 am
I have been cramming to take the GMAT on April 5, and while I have concentrated on the quantitative section, I couldn't help noticing what I read this morning in AOL News. Here's the sentence:

(March 29) -- In a letter to President Barack Obama before he died, Sen. Ted Kennedy wrote that access to health care was "the great unfinished business of our society." It was, until now.

Please let me know if it is actually right or wrong. It reads badly.

Thanks!
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by supremelegacy » Sun Apr 04, 2010 8:07 am
slhood wrote:I have been cramming to take the GMAT on April 5, and while I have concentrated on the quantitative section, I couldn't help noticing what I read this morning in AOL News. Here's the sentence:

(March 29) -- In a letter to President Barack Obama before he died, Sen. Ted Kennedy wrote that access to health care was "the great unfinished business of our society." It was, until now.

Please let me know if it is actually right or wrong. It reads badly.

Thanks!
It not only reads badly but is actually wrong in its meaning too.

Placement of 'before he died' wrongly implies that the matter at hand happened before President Obama died. Correctly it should follow after Sen. ted Kennedy and be placed within commas to correctly define the concerned subject. The use of 'It' in second sentence is ambiguous as it is unclear to what it refers to (it could be the letter or the access to health care or unfinished business).
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by gmat_Tutor » Tue Apr 06, 2010 2:30 am
In a letter to President Barack Obama before he died, Sen. Ted Kennedy wrote that access to health care was "the great unfinished business of our society." It was, until now.

=> Opening Modifier:

In a letter to President Barack Obama before he died

=> This portion is the opening modifier.

Sen. Ted Kennedy
=> This is the modified NOUN.

wrote that access to health care was "the great unfinished business of our society." It was, until now.

=> Wrote is the main verb.

I think, the sentence is correct. What others say?
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by supremelegacy » Wed Apr 07, 2010 3:27 am
gmat_Tutor wrote:In a letter to President Barack Obama before he died, Sen. Ted Kennedy wrote that access to health care was "the great unfinished business of our society." It was, until now.

=> Opening Modifier:

In a letter to President Barack Obama before he died

=> This portion is the opening modifier.

Sen. Ted Kennedy
=> This is the modified NOUN.

wrote that access to health care was "the great unfinished business of our society." It was, until now.

=> Wrote is the main verb.

I think, the sentence is correct. What others say?
[opening modifier] [subject] [verb] is a correct usage.

However, in this case, WITHIN the modifier "In a letter to President Obama before he died", the position of the preposition "before" indicates a relation between "he died" and "President Obama" (that's the function of prepositions, isn't it?), which is the error here.

I find the given sentence incorrect. The correct form should leave no scope for ambiguity and place things clearly as:
"Before he died, Sen. Ted Kennedy wrote in a letter to President Obama that access to..."
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by money9111 » Wed Apr 07, 2010 9:19 am
I love this post! I find more and more instances when published sentences are incorrect!
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