RE: Grammar Question

Subject: RE: Grammar Question
From: "Ben" <baj357 -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "'Ned Bedinger'" <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 07:50:22 -0700

Thank you everyone for your replies. I wanted more opinions on the topic as
I ran into a similar sentence, which I was editing for a colleague. I tried
researching compound predicates, verb tenses, parallel structure, but found
nothing definitive.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ned Bedinger [mailto:doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com]
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 10:39 PM
To: Ben
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Grammar Question


> Example: He will draw a picture and write his name on it.
>
> Question: Does the second verb phrase imply the use of the helping or
> auxiliary verb "will?" Or, must one explicitly write in the word "will?"
Is
> it necessary?

The addition of 'will' would not be required in common usage, But if
you are putting this under the microscope in pursuit of clearer tech
writing, then I think you might reasonably expect someone to misread
your example as a badly written description of two unrelated events.

IMHO, the addition of 'will' would give the example symmetry, and that
would more strongly imply a connection between the events. But the
addition of 'then' instead of will would establish the connection more
clearly as a sequence.

What is the context of your question? Are you studying English as a
second language, or Composition 101, or ...?

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References:
Re: Grammar Question: From: Ned Bedinger

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