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:

Noun clauses that express urgency or importance usually take the subjunctive mood, which uses the simple (base) form of the verb. In this case, use "be" instead of "are".

2. Apostrophe use:

In most cases, we add an apostrophe and an "s" to indicate the possessive. In this case, "todays" should be "today's".

3. Word confusion:

"Affective" and "effective" are often confused. In this sentence we need "effective", not "affective".

4. Punctuation:

As a rule, it is best to insert a comma before a coordinating conjunction (like "so") that introduces an independent clause.

5. Command (imperative):

When producing this form of sentence, the subject is omitted and the simple (base) form of the verb is used. In this case, use "pick" instead of "be picking".

6. Object pronoun:

Bryan and the speaker are both the object of the verb "pick up", so the pronoun must be in the objective case: "me" (rather than "I"). This is often confused because such phrases frequently form the subject of the verb ("Bryan and I picked up our friends at school"/"Our friends picked up Bryan and me and at school").

7. Word form:

“Prompt” is an adjective. But we need a word to modify the verb ("pick up"). That is, we need an  adverb: "promptly".

8. Infinitive:

In this sentence, "avoiding" indicates the purpose or intention of the action ("pick up"). In such cases, we use the infinitive ("to avoid") rather than the gerund ("avoiding").

9. Abbreviations:

Lower case abbreviations generally require a period after each letter ("a.m."). Upper case abbreviations do not require any periods ("AM"). Either form is acceptable.

10. Article:

Unless you are expecting some specific (i.e. "definite") type of trouble, omit the definite article ("the"). Use "trouble" rather than "the trouble".


Possible solution:

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