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Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Grammar
article before a quoted content question
Hi,
I am pretty sure and think Mr. M said something to the effect that putting an article before a quoted content like below or make a plural out of the kind below is to be avoid like a plague but I sometimes see people doing at least the former with a somewhat noticeable frequency. Is this OK? Why would you consider this OK?
he said that he could tack on an "I am John Doe and I wrote this disclaimer."
On a second thought, this can be thought of as an advertisement content -- a sort of writing on an ad. Does it have any effect on the use?
I am pretty sure and think Mr. M said something to the effect that putting an article before a quoted content like below or make a plural out of the kind below is to be avoid like a plague but I sometimes see people doing at least the former with a somewhat noticeable frequency. Is this OK? Why would you consider this OK?
he said that he could tack on an "I am John Doe and I wrote this disclaimer."
On a second thought, this can be thought of as an advertisement content -- a sort of writing on an ad. Does it have any effect on the use?
Top answer
) Pluralising quoted text by adding "s" is ugly in my view. ' ".
- ) Pluralising quoted text by adding "s" is ugly in my view.
- ' ".
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3 Answers
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I don't personally think that this is an egregious error in informal writing, but I would avoid it in formal writing, where I'd say something like:
He said that he could append a clause to read "I am John Doe and I wrote this disclaimer."
(The only reason I used "append" is that "tack on" is kind of informal, and this is supposed to be a formal sentence.)
Pluralis
He said that he could append a clause to read "I am John Doe and I wrote this disclaimer."
(The only reason I used "append" is that "tack on" is kind of informal, and this is supposed to be a formal sentence.)
Pluralis
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Thank you. What makes it good or correct to have an article here? I am not completely sure what it takes to put an article like the indefinite article.
he said that he could tack on an "I am John Doe and I wrote this disclaimer."
he said that he could tack on an "I am John Doe and I wrote this disclaimer."
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I'm not sure I'd go quite so far as to say that this style is "good" or "correct". I just don't think it's as dreadfully bad as your original post suggested. To me, including the article is often a chatty way of suggesting a standard form of words that can be reused to serve a set purpose.
To give a different example:
We'd had a massive row, so I added "PS I love you" at the e
To give a different example:
We'd had a massive row, so I added "PS I love you" at the e
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