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Gillyflower Posted 7 years ago
Grammar

Does this sentence sound fine?

Hi,

Does this sentence sound fine?

"After specifying the inclusion criteria and selecting the participants, the questionnaires were distributed at the appropriate time and were completed and collected."


Thanks!

  

Top answer

This sentence has a so-called "dangling" participle problem: grammatically, the implied subject of "specifying" is "questionnaires". Obviously we know that this meaning is not actually intended, but still it is not a good sentence structurally.

  • This sentence has a so-called "dangling" participle problem: grammatically, the implied subject of "specifying" is "questionnaires".
  • Obviously we know that this meaning is not actually intended, but still it is not a good sentence structurally.
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2 Answers
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This sentence has a so-called "dangling" participle problem: grammatically, the implied subject of "specifying" is "questionnaires". Obviously we know that this meaning is not actually intended, but still it is not a good sentence structurally.

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You can fix it like this:

After the inclusion criteria were specified and the participants selected, the questionnaires ....

CJ

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