Question e-mailed to me by ka ka cheng (May 15, 2015):See the following statement:
As raining season is approaching, flooding problems will once again one of the major environmental issues facing Tanner District residents.
To resolve this issue, I have communicated with FEHD. With the kind assistance from District Councilor Mr. Desmond Lee, FEHD has committed to conduct drainage clearing movement to prevent blockage of drains causing undersirable flooding. In the coming months we will monitor constantly the situation to ensure resident's safety. Please contact us for any relevant district issues.
Question 1 - Is there is any grammatical error in the statement above? If yes, please point out and provide the model sentence by return.
Question 2 - Which of the following sentence constructions is correct?
“In the coming months we will monitor constantly the situation to ensure resident's safety.”
“In the coming months we will monitor the situation constantly to ensure resident's safety.”
Many thanks.
My reply to ka ka cheng:Yes, there are several grammar errors in the statement that you presented, and I am indicating each of those errors by italicizing them below:
As raining season is approaching, flooding problems will once again one of the major environmental issues facing Tanner District residents.
To resolve this issue, I have communicated with FEHD. With the kind assistance from District Councilor Mr. Desmond Lee, FEHD has committed to conduct drainage clearing movement to prevent blockage of drains causing undersirable flooding. In the coming months we will monitor constantly the situation to ensure resident’s safety. Please contact us for any relevant district issues.
1, “As raining season.” This phrase is ackward and unidiomatic. It is commonly expressed idiomatically as “as the rainy season.”
2. “flooding problems will once again one of the major environmental issues.” This clause is missing the obligatory verb, perhaps inadvertently. The verb “be” should be inserted between the words “again” and “one,” to make the clause correctly read as follows: “flooding problems will once again
be one of the major environmental issues.”
3. “facing Tanner District residents.” Since the the passage where this phrase occurs is in the future tense, the use of the present progressive “facing” here is grammatically wrong. It should be the infinitive form “to be faced by” instead or the future progressive form “that Tanner District residents wil be facing.”
3. “With the kind assistance from District Councilor Mr. Desmond Lee.” The conventional preposition usage in constructions of this kind is “of,” not “from,” so the phrase needs to be corrected as follows: “With the kind assistance
of District Councilor Mr. Desmond Lee.”
4. “to conduct drainage clearing movement to prevent blockage of drains causing undersirable flooding.” This prepositional phrase suffers from faulty terminology, faulty syntax, and faulty spelling (“undersirable”). Here’s a better, clearer way to construct it: “to conduct a program to clear blocked drains and prevent their blockage so as to avoid undesirable flooding.”
5. “we will monitor constantly the situation to ensure resident’s safety.” The improper positioning of the adverb “constantly” makes the clause cumbersome and awkward to read. Here are the two advisable positions of “constantly” in that clause: (1) “we will constantly monitor the situation to ensure resident’s safety,” and (2) “we will monitor the situation constantly to ensure resident’s safety.” Another thing: "constantly" has the bothersome sense of “continually occurring or recurring,” which doesn’t seem to be humanly possible or warranted in the context of monitoring underground drains; in its place, “regularly” would be much precise and appropriate usage.
Taking all of the above corrections and refinements into account, that passage will be better if rewritten as follows:
As the rainy season is approaching, flooding problems will once again be one of the major environmental issues to be faced by Tanner District residents.
To resolve this issue, I have communicated with FEHD. With the kind assistance of District Councilor Mr. Desmond Lee, FEHD has committed to conduct a program to clear blocked drains and prevent their blockage so as to avoid undesirable flooding. In the coming months we will regularly monitor the situation to ensure the safety of residents. Please contact us for any relevant district issues.
