building-great-sentences

He suggested that our team have a meeting vs. he suggested that our team has a meeting

by

My team’s boss suggested that our team should have a meeting with another team. We are currently trying to write a message to the other team but cannot come to a conclusion as to how to write a particular sentence. Here are the two sentences we are torn between Our boss suggested that our team … Read more

‘I’m in favour of ___’ vs. ‘I’m for ___’

by

Is ‘I’m in favour of’ considered more formal than ‘I’m for’, or are they interchangeable? I want to say something like, ‘Sometimes people abandon their logic /in favour of/ false hope’, but can’t help but feel that using ‘for’ would make the sentence more succinct. Answer As in: Sometimes, people abandon their logic for false … Read more

Get lost in so many “that, and, in proportion to” in this sentence

by

I read a paper about lake and got confused about the following sentence (lower left in page 11256), because it has so many “and”, “that”, “in proportion to”. I do not know which part of the sentence belongs to which word above. Short-term bioassays indicated that C-limited (i.e., carbon limited) photosynthesis and algal growth and … Read more

Looking for a phrase/word similar to cross-department?

by

Let’s say a company has a few different locations/branches (e.g. one in New York, one in D.C.). I’d like to ask: … are there any cross-site activities or meetups for teams based in New York and teams based in D.C.? But can I use “cross-site” here? I coined the phrase myself by borrowing the same … Read more

confused about “…I may have tripped over someone else who’s hiding”

by

I’m translating a post about psychology and having trouble with this sentence: “I know when I’m sitting across from someone who’s smiling brightly at me while simultaneously describing a significant loss or disappointment that I may have tripped over someone else who’s hiding.” The context is someone trying to hide their negative emotions. But I … Read more

“post offices can provide many of the same services OF banks”

by

The diverse array of successful portal banking systems around the world shows that post offices can provide many of the same services of banks. This sentence is incorrect, and “of banks” should be replaced by “provided by banks”. Although I understand why “provided by banks” is a better sentence to maintain parallelism, why is the … Read more

is the following sentence correct? “Please select each articles condition.”

by

A customer should choose the condition for each “article”. “articles” is also the plural form of “article”. so is “Please select each articles condition.” correct, or should i use something like “…article’s…”? Thank you in advance. Answer If you mean ‘the condition which each article is in’, yes, you need the possessive article’s. AttributionSource : … Read more

CPE exam: The children agreed to take it in turns to tidy the playroom

by

While preparing for the CPE exam I came across the following sentence transformation task: The children agreed they would each tidy the playroom on alternate days. turns The children ________________________ the playroom. My answer was: The children agreed to take turns tidying the playroom. The key states: The children agreed to take it in turns … Read more

Thank you sentence structure

by

Which one is more correct? a) Thank you for your help Norman. -or- b) Thank you Norman for your help. Answer Both are correct, but missing commas. Norman, here, is being used as a appositive phrase and as such can be placed nearly anywhere in the sentence. The connotation/tone changes with placement, so be careful … Read more

“was employed at” vs “had been employed at”

by

I am providing an “employment verification letter” to one of my past employees. He worked at my company from Oct, 2008 till Jan 2017. Which one of the following is correct? 1) He was employed at XYZ company from Oct, 2008 up until Jan, 2017 OR 2) He had been employed at XYZ company from … Read more