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Dangling (was RE: "Ability" or "allows" - The answer or "you thou ght so?")
Subject:Dangling (was RE: "Ability" or "allows" - The answer or "you thou ght so?") From:"Brierley, Sean" <Brierley -at- QUODATA -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 22 Jun 1999 14:08:21 -0400
Actually,
I'd fix it.
"Use this selection to define the countries in which you operate."
I do prefer the "Use this . . ." and "This lets . . ." construction to the
"allows to . . ." variants, but I do not believe your obligation not to
dangle is relieved.
Obviously, as we've seen here many times before, the question is at what
point do we sacrifice the language for clarity. My opinion is that clarity
suffers nought for fixing the dangle.
Sean
sean -at- quodata -dot- com
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: John Posada [mailto:jposada01 -at- YAHOO -dot- COM]
>>>Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 1999 2:04 PM
>>>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>>>Subject: Re: "Ability" or "allows" - The answer
>>>
>>>
>>>And the winner is:
>>>
>>>"Use this selection to define the countries that you
>>>operate in. "
>>>
>>>HEY! I don't even want to HEAR about that dangling
>>>participle. :-)
>>>
>>>Thanks for the help, guys.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>===
>>>John Posada