What's wrong here? "Johnson said the teen told officers he lit the fire and was arrested."
A "that" is missing. | 5 (6%) |
The "and was arrested" part is unclear. | 5 (6%) |
A pronoun is unclear. | 10 (12%) |
A punctuation mark is missing. | 0 (0%) |
Two of the above | 57 (74%) |
MY ORIGINAL ANSWER
So, I was going for answer number 2. Let's break it down.
1) A "that" is missing: Well, a "that" after "said" or "officers" is optional, not required.
2) The "and was arrested" part is unclear: Well, it definitely is! When you first read the sentence, it seems as if the teen admitted two things: he lit the fire; he was arrested. The "and was arrested" part doesn't work. You need to reword it: "Johnson said the teen was arrested after he told officers he lit the fire."
3) A pronoun is unclear: It's true that two men are in this sentence, but I don't think the "he" is unclear.
Your thoughts?
MY REVISED ANSWER
OK. I admit it. If you didn't know that Johnson was a police officer, I see how the pronoun could be vague. I should have clearly said that Johnson was a cop. Shame on me!!
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2 comments:
I think the "he" is unclear because without the context of the rest of the article, story, etc. I have no idea who Johnson is. Johnson could very well be saying, "The teen told officers I lit the fire and was arrested." This makes the "was arrested" part still completely ambiguous.
You win, Anonymous! See revised post.
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