Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Criminal Sentence 74: Ambiguous Sentence

From something I edited recently:

"Here are four superior examples of boutiques with a single designer producing clothing that is made in France."

The words that got me temporarily confused are "designer" next to "producing." For a moment I thought a hyphen should be between them, but then I realized that wasn't right. To avoid sentences that might be ambiguous, I recommend using a "that" or "who" clause instead of the "-ing" form:

"Here are four superior examples of boutiques with a single designer who produces clothing that is made in France."

No ambiguity there.

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