Jose Carillo's English Forum

Joe Carillo's Desk => You Asked Me This Question => Topic started by: Melvin on February 04, 2023, 09:05:40 PM

Title: Better sentence
Post by: Melvin on February 04, 2023, 09:05:40 PM

Which one is better:

1. Please NEVER plagiarize nor generate your essay using AI.

or

2. Please never engage in plagiarism or use artificial intelligence to generate your essays.

Title: Re: Better sentence
Post by: Joe Carillo on February 06, 2023, 01:42:36 PM

Informally, vin09, both of those sentences can pass muster in conversation without getting challenged from a grammar standpoint. Formally, however, you would be much better off expressing them in either a simple "don't" parallel construction or a "neither...nor" construction, as follows:

1. Parallel "don't" construction: "Please don't plagiarize or generate your essay using AI."
2. "Neither...nor" construction:  "Please neither plagiarize nor use artificial intelligence to generate your essays."