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Subject:What is wrong with this sentence? From:Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 14 Apr 2005 10:08:06 -0400
Shelly Kapoor wonders: <<"ABC provides the XYZ interface using which
you can create folders for storing your personal card information."
Specifically, what's wrong with the use of "using which". I think its
incorrect, but I am not sure why that is so.>>
The problem is that there's a mental whiplash associated with the verb
"using" because the author changed direction at high speed without
signalling. <G> You can see how the wording misleads the reader if you
modify the sentence slightly: "ABC provides XYZ using all the skills at
our disposal". That's the kind of sentence structure readers expect in
English, and when the sentence doesn't fit the pattern, readers have to
stop, retrace their path, figure out that the sentence pattern is
different, then reinterpret the new meaning.
Technically, all you need to do is add a comma before "using", since
that comma signals the direction change and says "finish processing the
first part of the sentence, assign a meaning to those words, now build
on those words with the rest of the sentence". That solution is
grammatically correct, but it ignores the more serious problem: this
kind of wording is almost completely unidiomatic in modern English.
Thus, even if the reader sees the comma and "slows down to take the
curve", it's still not an elegant solution.
Try a simpler, more idiomatic approach: "... the XYZ interface, which
lets you create..." Simple is always good in tech. comm.
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