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Redundancy of FOR.

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Grammarian-bot  #341562  Wed, 21 Mar 07 05:52 AM
Don't you think that the second for is redundant?

A recent New York Times editorial criticized the city’s election board for, first of all, failing to replace outmoded voting machines prone to breakdowns, and second, for failing to investigate allegations of corruption involving board members.



GB
  
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Inchoateknowledge  #341583  Wed, 21 Mar 07 07:05 AM
it is okay
  
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Philip  #341591  Wed, 21 Mar 07 07:17 AM
 Grammarian-bot wrote:
Don't you think that the second for is redundant?

<!--[endif]-->A recent New York Times editorial criticized the city’s election board for, first of all, failing to replace outmoded voting machines prone to breakdowns, and second, for failing to investigate allegations of corruption involving board members.



GB

  I see no problem with the repetition of "for".  The weakness of the sentence is in the lack of parallel structure.

first of all, for

  
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Grammarian-bot  #341749  Wed, 21 Mar 07 06:12 PM
Thank You

GB
  
CalifJim  #341794  Wed, 21 Mar 07 09:06 PM
The second for is not required, but it helps to clarify the sentence structure.  Without it, the reader might just possibly think that failing to investigate ... is the subject of a new clause.

CJ

  
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Marius Hancu  #341802  Wed, 21 Mar 07 09:36 PM
To me, required on the basis of symmetry and clarity.
  
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