Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

This construction is puzzling me...

I wrote the following in a book review:

“How about a return to the days when women were in such vulnerable and inferior positions, they were easier to take advantage of by powerful men who knew they could get away with it?”

That bit “they were easier to take advantage of by powerful men ...” doesn’t sit right with me, but I can’t figure out why. Am I just imagining it, or is there a problem?

Submit Your Comment

or fill in the name and email fields below:

Comments

You need a passive--
"they were easier TAKEN advantage of"

CQ Apr-21-2005

0 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

Recast the entire last clause as 'when it was easier for powerful men, who knew they could get away with it, to take advantage of them'

Persephone_Imytholin Apr-21-2005

0 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

Persephone and I are on the same page, but I'd make a slight additional change and say, "How about a return to the days when women were in such vulnerable and inferior positions, that it was easier for powerful men, who knew they could get away with it, to take advantage of them?"

speedwell2 Apr-21-2005

0 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

Note the pronoun confusion in the last example, though (they/them).

A more invasive recasting of the sentence might go something like:

"How about a return to the days when women were so vulnerable that it was easier for powerful to take advantage of them with impunity?"

anonymous4 Apr-21-2005

0 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

Anonymous was me, sorry....

speedwell2 Apr-21-2005

0 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

Speedwell's phrasing is nice, but would be a little better without the first comma -> "How about a return to the days when women were in such vulnerable and inferior positions that it was easier for powerful men, who knew they could get away with it, to take advantage of them?"

Persephone_Imytholin Apr-21-2005

1 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

And this is what happens when people reply at the same time. Speedwell's latest attempt is nice, but there's an adjective desperately seeking a noun there.

Persephone_Imytholin Apr-21-2005

0 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

(cries) I didn't actually miss that but I didn't want to post four times in a row.

Dyske, I wish we had a preview....

speedwell2 Apr-21-2005

0 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

You could say...

"How about a return to the days when women were in such vulnerable and inferior positions, where they were more easily taken advantage of by powerful men who knew they could get away with it?"

it's a little more casual than the sentence structure persephone gave althought that is very correct as well.

anonymous4 Jun-17-2005

0 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

I don't really like this last construction. There's another thread discussing the (mis)use of "so" as an adverb and I believe "such" is used the same way here. Remove some of the extra verbiage and we're left with: "How about a return to the days when women were in such vulnerable and inferior positions?" That's not a correct sentence, IMO. I think allowing the second clause to be independent of the first breaks the sentence.

Joachim1 Jun-24-2005

0 vote   Permalink   Report Abuse

Do you have a question? Submit your question here