I pulled the following sentence, which contains an error, from an article at The Atlantic titled "Is the Ivy League Fair to Asian Americans?" Here's the sentence:
Again, the implication here seems to be that while Asian-American applicants as a group excel at tests, an important factor in admissions, their talents, skills, and other interests tend to be significantly inferior to students of other races, and having them around isn't as enriching for other students.
The nature of the error is:
(A) poor tense control
(B) faulty/illogical comparison
(C) ambiguous pronoun reference
(D) dangling or misplaced modifier
From the same article, another sentence with an error:
As I see it, we know that even well-intentioned people regularly rationalize discriminatory behavior, that society as a whole is often horrified at its own bygone race-based policies, and that race is so fluid in our multi-ethnic society that no one can adequately conceive of all the ways it is changing; knowing these things, prudence dictates acceptance of the fact that humans aren't equipped to fairly take race into consideration. [italics in original]
The nature of the error is:
(A) poor tense control
(B) faulty/illogical comparison
(C) ambiguous pronoun reference
(D) dangling or misplaced modifier
_
The most blatant error in the title is the capitalization of fair.
ReplyDeleteFull marks for trying!
ReplyDeleteOK, I'll give this a shot.
ReplyDeleteIn the first sentence, I find the use of "them" to be slightly confusing at the end--does it refer to "Asian-American applicants" or "their talents, skills, and other interests"? Because, grammatically at least, it could be either.
(Also, to cut down on possible confusion, I would probably put "an important factor in admissions" in parentheses--but that's more of a stylistic choice and not really an error.)
I'll be honest with you: I'm not so sure about the second sentence. The only thing that sticks out to me is the use of "race." It isn't race itself that is changing, but the concept of race, or how we define/distinguish races.
Actually, the use of "fairly" bothers me as well, although I think that might be just poor wording. I might prefer "...aren't equipped to consider race fairly." But that whole phrase probably needs rewriting; I know what the author is trying to say, but it seems that there should be a better way to say it. Too early on Christmas morning to think of one, though.
Charles,
ReplyDeleteBravo! You caught an ambiguous pronoun reference that I didn't catch, so you could legitimately answer (C).
My own take was more obvious:
"...their talents, skills, and other interests tend to be significantly inferior to students of other races..."
Faulty comparison: "talents, skills, and other interests" are being compared to "students." I would have picked (B), and would have corrected the locution to read:
"...their talents, skills, and other interests tend to be significantly inferior to those of students of other races..."
But I see now that I should have honed my question more carefully. Kudos!
As for the second sentence, it's a dangling modifier:
"...knowing these things, prudence dictates acceptance of the fact..."
Who's doing the knowing? It can't be prudence.
But you make a legitimate point about the usage of the words "race" and "fairly," which constitutes a diction error.
Doh! Can't believe I didn't catch the dangling modifier! It's obvious now, of course.
ReplyDelete