5 Examples of Confused Sentences

5 Examples of Confused Sentences 5 Examples of Confused Sentences 5 Examples of Confused Sentences By Mark Nichol When writers neglect to take sufficient care in forming sentences, confusion and error can easily result. The following five sentences illustrate various ways in which the wrong word order or choice of phrasing can obfuscate meaning; discussion and a revision follows each example. 1. Various supervisors have developed their own risk assessment methodologies independently, which are not always directly comparable. A restrictive clause (one that starts with which and provides an additional and optional detail), should immediately follow the word or phrase it refers to (after the intervening comma, that is); do not permit another part of speech, such as the adverb independently, in this example, to separate them: â€Å"Various supervisors have independently developed their own risk assessment methodologies, which are not always directly comparable.† 2. If you’d like to read more about Smith’s beliefs, many more of them are detailed on his website. Many more of Smith’s beliefs are detailed on his website whether you’d like to read more about them or not. The following revision of a false conditional expresses the immutable presence of Smith’s beliefs on his website regardless of your interest in reading about them: â€Å"If you’d like to read more about Smith’s beliefs, visit his website to read many more of them.† 3. However, U.S. regulators go further by specifying that special due diligence is performed. The important distinction that the action must be performed, rather than that it is being performed, is obscured by use of the wrong form of the verb: â€Å"However, U.S. regulators go further by specifying that special due diligence be performed.† 4. Conventional data-management strategies used to factor in only data sources within the enterprise. This sentence states that at a previous time, something occurred. However, the phrase â€Å"used to† could be misunderstood to mean â€Å"employed in order to,† leading to further confusion because the sentence then appears to be incomplete, because there is no object. Alternatively, the reader might read â€Å"used to† to mean â€Å"accustomed to,† with the same result. The sentence will read unambiguously if the verb phrase is altered, as in â€Å"Conventional data-management strategies previously factored in only data sources within the enterprise.† 5. Every rape is not a gender-motivated hate crime. This sentence states that of all the rapes committed, none is a gender-motivated hate crime. The statement is clumsy, but worse, it is not what the writer meant to say. The point that although some or many rapes may be committed with that motivation, others are not. That meaning is conveyed by a simple relocation of the negation: â€Å"Not every rape is a gender-motivated hate crime.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Good At, Good In, and Good WithLatin Plural EndingsCapitalizing Titles of People and Groups

Thomas Alva Edison essays

Thomas Alva Edison essays Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. His father was a shingle maker and his mother was a school teacher. When Edison was seven, he moved to Port Huron, Michigan. Edison attended school there. He tended to ask many questions and this would bother his teachers. The teachers told his mother that he was mentally retarded and could never learn. He would not stay focused and was too active to learn. He only attended three months of formal education and the rest of the time his mother educated him at home. Edison loved to read. His favorite books were science books that involved chemistry information. Since he was young, he liked to do chemistry experiments. When he was 14, Edison became a newsboy on the Grand Trunk railroad. While he worked there, an accident caused Edison to lose most of his hearing which only got worse through his lifetime. At 15, Edison learned how to be a telegraph operator. He learned the Morse code and became skilled in sending and taking messages. One of Edison's first inventions was a telegraph repeater which automatically relayed a message to a second line. This device was the basis from which he developed some of his later important inventions. In 1869 Edison went to Boston and patented his vote counter he had invented earlier. From this Edison developed the stock ticker. He was paid $40,000.00 for this invention. He invested the money to open a laboratory and factory in Menlo, New Jersey to work full time on inventing. Most of his inventions had to do with various kinds of multiplex systems of telegraphy. He soon became famous as "the wizard of Menlo Park." In 1882 alone, Edison applied for 141 patents and was granted 75 of them. Some of his major inventions were the incandescent electric light bulb, the phonograph, the motion- picture projector, automatic and multiplex telegraph, the carbon telephone transmitter, a stock ticker, and the alkaline stora...

The Kroger Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Kroger Company - Essay Example Although, most of its competitors have experienced negative sales growth in 2010, Kroger Co. has not failed to keep its shareholders satisfied by steady sales growth in the last 29 quarters. Kroger Co. takes pride in its loyal customer base as approximately one-half of US households have a Kroger loyalty card. This has been a result of Customer 1st strategy that Kroger Co. believes in. It has also been popular among shareholders for its consistent dividend payments. In 2010, it distributed $250 million along with maintaining investment-grade credit rating and reducing long-term debt which eventually resulted in capital gains. Profitability ratios are an indicator of a company’s performance over the year. Profitability ratios include operating profit margin, net profit margin, return on asset, and return on equity (Puxty, Dodds & Wilson 1988). Sales increased by 7.1% to $82.2 billion in 2010, which is more than its competitors. Operating profit margin for the year 2010 was 2.65% with operating profits of $2.182 billion. Return on sales, also known as net-profit margin, were impressive in 2010 with reported net earnings of $1.12 billion to get $1.74 earning per diluted share. Net profit margin for the year was 1.36%. Shareholders are also interested in return on assets and equity. Their decisions are influenced by these ratios therefore; it is essential that a company projects better return on the asset it employs and the equity it takes. For Kroger, return on equity is impressive with 21%. Moreover, Kroger has been reducing its long term debt in the past few years which makes the company less risky to benefit shareholders. Therefore, a return of 21% is notable in comparison to the industry. Return on asset has also been sufficient with 6.3%. Speaking of efficiency, Kroger Co. has performed well in this regard. Efficiency ratios judge the ability of a company to earn from its resources in an effective and efficient manner (Besley & Brigham 2008). These ratios include asset turnover ratio, receivable turnover ratio and inventory turnover ratio. Total Asset turnover is impressive for Kroger Co. as sales are about 3.5 times the total assets. This means that with every dollar of asset provided, Kroger generates $3.5 worth of sales from it. Inventory Turnover ratio has also been inspiring with a multiple of 16.55 times. This means that in a matter of 21 days, inventory is converted into sale. A high turnover rate implies that Kroger Co. is facing high sales therefore there is minimal investment tied up in the inventory (Fabozzi, Peterson & Drake 2003). Still efforts need to be made to increase its turnover rate as investment in inventory yields zero return and a company would always refrain from having its capital tied up in such an investment. Receivable turnover is calculated by dividing credit sales from average receivables. This ratio measures the efficiency of a company to collect its receivables. Kroger Co. is extremely efficient in this regard as it collects its receivables in less than four days which is remarkable. Kroger Co. generates sales of $82.2 billion and not more than 1 billion is kept as receivable means a job well done. Liquidity ratios illustrate the company’s ability to pay off obligations in the short term (Shim & Siegel 2008). Current asset ratio and acid-test ratio are observed closely when liquidity is in question. Kroger Co. has not been impressive with its ability to keep liquid assets. Current ratio which is current asset divided by current liabilities is below 1. This means that to pay off each dollar of liability, Kroger do es not have equal amount of liquid assets on hand. Acid test ratio is in a sorry state as well. Inventory constitutes major portion of current