When you think of word order - the way words come together in phrases or clauses - think of how you can control it to bring your writing alive. Good writers master grammar in order to control their words, and meaning is their target. In a given paragraph, they may use an expression that is technically a dangling construction but nevertheless communicate their meaning clearly. A dangling construction fails to make clear who is doing what.
For example, here's the masterful English writer William Hazlitt beginning the third paragraph of his essay on Sir James Mackintosh:
To consider him in the last point of view first. As a political partisan, he is rather the lecturer than the advocate.
The first sentence doesn't show who is clearly doing the considering.
The most common word-order change made by editors is to bring together subjects and verbs which have been seperated.
Original: Professor Rending, in approaching his subject, stumbled in circles, like a drunk.
Revision: In approaching his subject, Professor Rending stumbled in circles, like a drunk.
Placing words in a different order can make the sentence more clear to the reader.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
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