1 November 2013

Previous Grammar Question

Its important that we are on time for todays meeting on affective marketing techniques so please be picking Bryan and I up prompt at 8 am avoiding the trouble with the boss.

1. Mood: in noun clauses after an expression indicating urgency or importance, use the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive uses the base form of the verb and doesn’t change. In this sentence, use “be” instead of “are”.
2. Apostrophes: When a letter is missing, using an apostrophe (change “its” to “it’s”) and when a noun becomes a possessive, use an apostrophe (change “todays” to “today’s”).
3. Word confusion: In this sentence the adjective “effective” is appropriate, not “affective”.
4. Command: In this form of the verb when the subject is omitted, use the base form of the verb – change “be picking” to “pick”.
5.  Object pronoun: Bryan is the object of the verb “pick”; the pronoun is also an object of the same verb, so change “I” (subject pronoun) to “me”.
6. Word form: “prompt” is an adjective’ here the adverb “promptly” is needed because it modifies “pick up”, the verb.
7. Infinitive: In this sentence, the infinitive “to avoid” is needed rather than the gerund “avoiding.”
8. Capitalization: In MLA format, used in the English courses, use A.M. for times.
9. Article: Unless you are expecting some specific type of trouble, omit “the” so that “trouble” is more generic.
10. Punctuation: “so” is a coordinating conjunction and it introduces an independent clause, so use a comma before it.


Suggested solution: 

It’s important that we be on time for today’s meeting on effective marketing techniques, so please pick Bryan and me up promptly at 8 A.M. to avoid trouble with the boss.

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