Search results for 'tag:Writing styles tag:Nouns' matching tags 'Writing styles' and 'Nouns'

Re: verifying the rule

Clive — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 02:32:34 GMT

Hi,

1. As a rule, what comes after a preposition must or should be a noun or any noun equivalent?

2. I saw a lesson content writing that is written like this without the regard for English article rules, is it OK? Is it a norm to employ this type of writing style for lesson content section writing?

Lesson Content: Specify location and tell about location.

I think you are asking whether an article is needed after the preposition 'about' in this example. No, because this is just a title, and articles are often omitted from titles.

Best wishes, Clive

verifying the rule

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 23:31:49 GMT

Hi,

1. As a rule, what comes after a preposition must or should be a noun or any noun equivalent?

Lesson Content: Specify location and tell about location.

Re: Can you please check my essay Plz PLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

nona the brit — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 09:02:04 GMT

I do hope that your teacher didn't give you that question as it gives me serious doubts about their English ability! You can't refer to people as 'it' for a start, and there are lots of other errors.

You have a nice natural and fluent writing style. You just need to be a little more careful with your verb tenses sometimes and plan your sentence ends/starts more carefully. Also, Anil is a proper noun, so always needs a capital letter.

Re: Questions of Mixed Nature I

Believer — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 21:15:27 GMT

Thank you.

As to No. 1, I posted previously with the following two sentences and asked whether these are fine grammatically.

I think the answer or response to that post was this: You need some kind of an object.

The sentences I posted were/are???:

Please let me know if getting better.

Please let me know if done right.

Don't they have the elliptical structure that are workable??? in terms of their writing style or sentential structure ?

Sorry, this just came up. Should the underlined and colored part be were or are?

As to No.2, I think a post in this forum had this reply to the issue of whether the "noun plus participle" structure require the hyphen: The hyphen is not necessary. Please look at the thread titled "Noun + participle always with hyphen?".

Re: "Life that is"

paco2004 — Wed, 10 May 2006 00:26:04 GMT

MrPedantic wrote:
I would read "Life" as a restatement of the preceding "life", and "that" as a defining relative pronoun:
"...weeping inconsolably and trying to look at life ahead â life that is more engaging, more nuanced and ultimately more disturbing than art, in this case."

HelloãMrP

Thank you for the opinion. So I feel the writing style here is of abnormally elaborate rhetoric. Am I right?

paco

Re: genitive

paco2004 — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 11:42:46 GMT

Your question is not a grammatical one. It's an issue of writing style, and in English, there is no authority (like I'Academie Francaise) to fix writing style. But The Chicago Manual of Style is a kind of authority and it says about the style of celestial bodies as follows:

Names of other planets and stars are proper nouns and begin with a capital letter: "The planet Mars can be seen tonight in the constellation Gemini, near the star Pollux".

The words sun, earth, and moon are proper nouns when used in an astronomical context, but not elsewhere: so "The Sun is a main sequence star, with a spectral class of G2"; but "It was a lovely day and the sun was warm". Note that these terms are only proper nouns when referring to a specific spectral body (our Sun, Earth and Moon): so "The Moon orbits the Earth"; but "Pluto's moon Charon".

So in your context, "the Earth" would be better.

paco

Need your hands on this sentence completion question

jeff_999 — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 13:55:27 GMT

The author did not see the _______ inherent in her scathing criticism of writing style so similar to her own.
A. disinterest
B. incongruity
C. pessimism
D. compliment
E. symbolism

The answer is B. I can tell. But what on earth is the sentence trying to imply?... It may probably be because I got confused with the objective personal pronoun "her" here. Maybe the second "her" refers to the author of a certain book/article, and the first "her" refers to a critic of this book/article's criticism/review. Tell me I got it fully right. If I didn't, what exactly is that?
Thank you so much for your time.

Re: A + superlative + noun ?

paco2004 — Wed, 05 Jan 2005 19:19:45 GMT

Hi Dave

Although using "a" with a superlative is not ungrammatical, it isn't (in my opinion) good writing style.

Do you mean we had better say "one of the most useful tools"?

paco

Re: A + superlative + noun ?

taiwandave — Wed, 05 Jan 2005 17:25:45 GMT

The superlative can be used with the indefinite article "a":

A most useful tool for analyzing the elemental composition of fossils is the electron probe, a modified electron microscope.

What this implies is that there are a number of very useful tools of which the electron probe is one. One cannot say which is the most useful; they are all useful in about the same degree. Therefore "a" is used instead of "the".

Although using "a" with a superlative is not ungrammatical, it isn't (in my opinion) good writing style.

Re: Human, humans?

taiwandave — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:50:49 GMT

'Collagen supports the earflaps and the tip of the nose in humans'.

This above is correct. "Human" is a countable noun, so to generalize you must use the plural form. Substituting "humankind" would be grammatically correct but a stylistic mistake. Why? Because it is a rather grandiose-sounding word, the semantic equivalent to "mankind". It would sound odd in a sentence that is making a specific point about the human body.

The best pointer on English writing style, for both native and non-native speakers, is to use the simplest possible words that will fit into your sentence. If you do this, you will seldom go wrong.