Wow,
imSKR, I did not mean to open this can of worms. Nevertheless, I will respond in-line below.
imSKR wrote:
hello
AndrewN sir
I have reached to the right answer. But I have 3 queries pending:
Quote:
without commas, we should be looking at parallel entities, X and Y. The part after and does not say former board member
1 But it may not be necessary because she could be former chair but not former board member( 10 years extra as board member)
The verb after the comma is conjugated into the simple past,
attended, so we understand that Joan Philkill's stint as a board member was also in the past. Otherwise, we would expect the verb to be
has attended.
imSKR wrote:
2. if number of years were not given then we could have chosen B?( my basis of rejecting B was, she can't be former for xx number of year)
The former chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and a board member for 28 years, Joan Philkill attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning
applications.
No, (B) would still be sub-optimal; its meaning could use a bit of clarity. For instance, the following version would be better:
As a board member and a one-time chair of the planning board, Joan Philkill... In your proposed sentence, I still want
as at the beginning. I would not write either of the following standalone sentences:
a)
The former chair of the planning board, Joan Philkill attended...b)
A board member, Joan Philkill attended...In both cases, an extra comma after the name would help add clarity to the sentence. (The name would be less important than the titles and the action of attending something.)
imSKR wrote:
Quote:
If anything, choice (C) should make you question the validity of (B), since the is implied in such a restrictive appositive phrase, as in, [The] Legendary boxer Muhammad Ali died in 2016.
3. Sir, I am not clear on this. Do you mean "Former" is much better than "The former" in this case?
No, not much better. I am saying that they basically say the same thing. Whether you write
The former chair... or
Former chair..., you are setting up the same sentence, grammatically, in this sort of sentence. The article adds nothing essential to the mix.
imSKR wrote:
3b. "As the former" is better or "As former "?
Nope, not what I was saying. And where did
as suddenly come from?
imSKR wrote:
3c. "The" represents specifically she was one of the member? Without the or using a , it would sense in general.
Please share some thoughts on using " the" when the subject is not used at other place in the sentence( e.g. only used in appositive phrase as in given question )
As the former deputy chairperson , she was yy. the deputy chairperson is a specific position so use the ? - correct?
As a female, she was very proactive physically . a here refers in general- correct?
I have no problem with the two sentences you have written above. Yes,
the is more restrictive than
a/an. But how did we get here in a discussion on an underlined portion of no more than three words? What happened to keeping matters simple? What it comes down to really is that
former is problematic in (A) through (C), while (D) creates a grammatically unsound sentence, one that leads to a comma splice. Choice (E) is clear and concise, the best of the lot. Pat yourself on the back for answering correctly and get this one out of your system.
Apologies for the confusion. I can assure you that was not my intention.
- Andrew
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