Sunday, August 4, 2013

Misplaced modifier

Looks like this is gonna be another grammar day. Yesterday we learned from Fr. Bernas a lesson in misplaced conjunctive adverbs.

From page 3 of Labor Relations Law with Notes and Comments, 2012 Edition by Salvador A. Poquiz:


At first glance my immediate question was: what national interest is under compulsory arbitration here? Until I realized that this was a case of a misplaced modifier. 

Under the Legal Writing class of  Prof. Gallardo A. Escobar, Jr., a student would have rewritten it this way:
However, the government plays an active role when it directly intervenes under compulsory arbitration in the resolution of a labor conflict that affects an industry indispensable to national interest.

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