Showing posts with label Prof. Gallardo A. Escobar Jr.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prof. Gallardo A. Escobar Jr.. Show all posts

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.