Here is a convoluted sentence that appeared in the "Money" section of The Birmingham News yesterday morning:
Tennessee Valley Authority officials are looking at the feasibility of completing its two unfinished nuclear reactors in northeast Alabama and has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reinstate its construction permits.
Whew! The subject of the sentence is "officials," so "officials are looking" works just fine. However, the second verb in the sentence is "has asked," but it still goes back to "officials" for the subject. Therefore, it should be "have asked."
In addition, this sentence uses the pronoun "its" twice. The "its" refers to the TVA, not the TVA officials, and this also makes the sentence awkward because "TVA officials" is the subject.
The better pronoun choice would be "their," referring to the TVA officials who are the subject of the sentence.
Tennessee Valley Authority officials are looking at the feasibility of completing their two unfinished nuclear reactors in northeast Alabama and have asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reinstate their construction permits.
I hope all of my readers will take their time when choosing subjects and verbs and make sure they agree.
Have a great Labor Day weekend!
Tennessee Valley Authority officials are looking at the feasibility of completing its two unfinished nuclear reactors in northeast Alabama and has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reinstate its construction permits.
Whew! The subject of the sentence is "officials," so "officials are looking" works just fine. However, the second verb in the sentence is "has asked," but it still goes back to "officials" for the subject. Therefore, it should be "have asked."
In addition, this sentence uses the pronoun "its" twice. The "its" refers to the TVA, not the TVA officials, and this also makes the sentence awkward because "TVA officials" is the subject.
The better pronoun choice would be "their," referring to the TVA officials who are the subject of the sentence.
Tennessee Valley Authority officials are looking at the feasibility of completing their two unfinished nuclear reactors in northeast Alabama and have asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reinstate their construction permits.
I hope all of my readers will take their time when choosing subjects and verbs and make sure they agree.
Have a great Labor Day weekend!
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