Feb. 16, 2021
Is this clause correct? (a professor wrote it )
. Winter atmosphere is in keeping with Francis’ fear of the dark and death.
WThe (or "a", see notes) winter atmosphere is in keeping with Francis’ fear of the dark and deathdeath and darkness.
You need either "a" or "the" before "winter atmosphere." Whether you use one or the other depends on if you're referring to the use of a winter atmosphere in general (then use "a") or to a specific winter atmosphere (then use "the").
The changes I made to death and darkness are more stylistic, but there is some grammar in there as well. "Death" doesn't take an article (no "a/the" death) in this case, but "dark" needs one. It is stylistically more harmonious to use two words that agree in the type of article they take (in this case, no article). This switch makes it feel more natural to say "fear" (referring to a single fear or fear generally) instead of "fears" (referring multiple fears) even though you are talking about two things.
Feedback
Professors make mistakes too... sometimes more than students haha. The real "mistake" here is the missing "the/a" before "winter atmosphere." The change at the end is more stylistic and the way it was originally written may not even have been technically wrong, it just sounds better to my English-speaking ears this way.
Feb. 16, 2021
Thank you!
Feb. 16, 2021
I concur with emcttsy
Feb. 17, 2021
I think it's dependent on context here. If this were, for example, a literary analysis and "Winter atmosphere" is a theme that was introduced in a previous clause, then it could make sense to say "Winter atmosphere is in keeping with [...]". However it does not work as a stand-alone sentence—an article would be required.
Additionally, "Francis’ fear of the dark and death" is ambiguous. Does it mean that Francis is afraid of both death and the dark? Or does it mean "fear of the dark" and another theme, "death"? If we assume the former, then emcttsy's correction makes sense (although I would argue that "darkness" could possibly imply deeper thing than a simple "fear of the dark"—which can only mean that he is afraid of literal darkness).
Feb. 19, 2021
No this has been written on the board as it is. As Emcttsy said professors make mistakes as well.
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Is this clause correct? (a professor wrote it ) |
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Winter atmosphere is in keeping with Francis’ fear of the dark and death.
You need either "a" or "the" before "winter atmosphere." Whether you use one or the other depends on if you're referring to the use of a winter atmosphere in general (then use "a") or to a specific winter atmosphere (then use "the"). The changes I made to death and darkness are more stylistic, but there is some grammar in there as well. "Death" doesn't take an article (no "a/the" death) in this case, but "dark" needs one. It is stylistically more harmonious to use two words that agree in the type of article they take (in this case, no article). This switch makes it feel more natural to say "fear" (referring to a single fear or fear generally) instead of "fears" (referring multiple fears) even though you are talking about two things. |
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