20191010

1. Students who study rarely get bad grades.

• Squinting modifier. What does rarely modify? Do they rarely study? Or do they rarely get bad grades? Missing a comma, or simply move the modifier to a better position. Students who rarely study get bad grades.

2. Sleeping in my orchard, a serpent stung me

• I will not be correcting Shakespeare.

3. I wanted to quickly dash off to the supermarket.

• Split Infinitive. To dash off quickly ... although it is a little bit of a redundancy too. I suppose it is to add emphasis.

4. For all intents and purposes, the reason Mr. Sparrow missed the conference was due to the fact that he had to stop very many traffic lights that were mainly red in colour.

• Wordiness. Mr. Sparrow was late because of traffic.

5. Ann can't hardly get up in the morning

• Double negative. Ann can't get up in the morning. She hardly makes it to breakfast ... Ann can hardly get up in the morning.

6. The list of items are on the desk

• Subject-verb agreement. The list of items is on the desk.

7. The students at our school are smarter than Gemini Middle School

• Illogical. Can a school be smart?

8. I wanted to go out for dinner before we went to the cinema, however I decided to go after instead.

• Comma slice. The comma is better replaced by a full stop. I wanted to go out for dinner before we went to the cinema. However, I decided to go after instead.

9. I found great a new position in tech. The remedy for all my financial problems.

• Sentence fragments. Also, 'great' is misplaced. I found a great new position in tech, and it will be the remedy to all my financial problems.

10. I can't figure out how to set up this rice cooker, it came without an instruction manual.

• Run-on sentence. The comma might be needed for a bit of a breathing pause, but it is missing a connector. I can't figure out how to set up this rice cooker, since it came without an instruction manual. Or replace the comma with a full stop. I can't figure out how to set up this rice cooker. It came with no instruction manual.