Monday, May 20, 2013

Misleading Participles


       Online, Mayo Clinic writes wonderful, clear, user-friendly  descriptions and accounts of different medical conditions.  But everyone needs to be watchful of unintentional confusion.  English’ll do that to you.

       Speaking of dermatitis, these sentences appear:

Avoid products that seem to trigger your rash.  Wearing nonlatex gloves while washing dishes, shampooing your hair or handling other products that irritate your skin may help.

       Sounds a little like nonlatex gloves could be one of those bad triggers, and also shampooing your hair could be, plus handling irritating products “may help”?!  It’s all those “ing” participles in a row that get entangled.
 
       A little thought and revision would make for better communication, with less potential for reader befuddlement. 

No comments:

Post a Comment