RE: Grammar Question

["Ben" <baj357 -at- gmail -dot- com>]

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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