[HPFGU-OTChatter] WANTED: Grammar Expert

[Coble, Katherine]

	Cindy asks:

> > Hey,
> >
> > I saw this in today's Washington Post, and I thought I'd test you
> > guys.   Please, if you know the answer from reading about this in the
> > media, let's keep the answer a secret and let folks who didn't read
> > the story have a go.
> >
> > OK.
> >
> > A major standardized test in the U.S. asked students whether there
> > was an error in grammar in the following sentence:
> >
> > "Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from
> > and express the injustices African Americans have endured."
> >
> > Yes, there is an error (although the testing bureau denied that
> > there was an scored "no error" as the correct answer).   A panel of
> > outside experts in grammar was hired to rule, and they identified an
> > error in grammar, forcing the testing bureau to re-score the exam.
> >
> > What is the error?
> 
Mycropht, who is paid to edit things says :

1.  I personally think that African-American should be hyphenated.
2. This is the most awkward sentence.  There is a vague antecedant for the
pronoun "her".  Is the antecedant "Toni Morrison" or "genius"?  Does Toni
have a pet genius that lives with her, also female.  As highly unlikely as
that is, when there are two nouns before a pronoun it can be classed as an
error.

Mycropht is anal about grammar.


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