Mon, 03 Feb 2025 14:27:27 EST
Consider This Sentence
The following sentence occurs in The Guardian on Apple News. “Microplastics contamination is widespread in seafood sampled in a recent study, adding to growing evidence of the dangerous substances’ ubiquity in the nation’s food system, and a growing threat to human health.”
Overlong. Clumsy.
The writer appears to intend that the final phrase of the sentence is a second object of, adding to growing evidence of, but the final phrase seems extraneous and confuses because of the distance of the phrase from the preposition and because of the unnecessary comma that precedes the phrase. The phrase is also redundant in meaning.
The portion of the sentence after the main clause is editorial in nature. Plastics contain substances that are known to cause adverse health effects, but the scientific study of the health effects of microplastics in our diet is ongoing.
My rewrite: “Microplastics were widespread in seafood sampled in a recent study, adding to the evidence of their ubiquity in our food sources.”
Fri, 31 Jan 2025 11:03:39 EST
Amend Versus Emend
- Amend
- The verb amend means to revise something, such as a document, an opinion, or a belief. You can amend a design or a process.
- Emend
- The verb emend means to revise something, but emend is reserved to describe the revision of documents to improve their accuracy and clarity.
Wed, 29 Jan 2025 10:32:09 EST
Consider This Sentence
The following sentence occurs in The Toronto Star on Apple News. “A Toronto judge has blasted a Crown attorney for his ‘inaction’ in getting a serious shooting case to trial, as he failed to respond to multiple requests for evidence from the defence in a matter that ended up being tossed for delay.”
To nitpick, as is a coordinating conjuntion. The convention is to not use a comma to separate a modifying clause from the clause it modifies unless the modifying clause occurs first.
Blasted is too informal for me. I see no reason why the single word, inaction, should be quoted. Multiple requests is redundant. The plural by itself will do. The modifier serious is unnecessary. All shooting cases are serious.
…in getting a serious shooting case to trial, is clumsy because of the present participle. The clause can be removed and matter replaced with case: …for inaction as he failed…in a case that…
The last restrictive clause in the sentence separates the judge from the dismissal of the case. The actor and action should be unambiguously close together. The judge is subsequently named in the article. I will use the name in the first mention of the judge. The nature of the case is subsequently described in the article. I will better describe the case in the initial sentence.
My rewrite: “In dismissing a firearm assault case for undue delay of trial, Justice Katrina Mulligan severely criticized the Crown attorney for his failure to respond to discovery requests from the defence.”
Mon, 27 Jan 2025 10:57:47 EST
Impostor
The noun impostor is Latin in origin and meant deceiver. In the 1580s, the meaning of impostor was cheat or swindler. By The 1620s, the current meanings of one who pretends to be someone else, and, one who pretends to have qualities it does not have had appeared.
An alternate spelling substitutes an e for the last o: imposter. The belief that the im– prefix negates the meaning of –postor is erroneous. Impost literally means put upon. Impostor means one who puts upon.