The Ambiguous Office Order
A section head drafts an internal note for 40 trainees: 'Being a new appointee, the schedule for the calibration test was circulated by the section head to all trainees, which will be held in Lab 3 and they should bring their ID cards.' The note must go out before 5 p.m. A second sentence reads: 'Neither the trainees nor the section head have received the revised timing.' A colleague says the note is understandable and should be sent unchanged. You have to edit it for grammar and clarity without changing the meaning: the calibration test is in Lab 3, all 40 trainees must bring ID cards, and the section head has circulated the schedule. The trainees are not new appointees; the section head is. You have ten minutes before the mail deadline.
1. Identify the dangling modifier and the ambiguous pronoun or relative clause in the first sentence, and explain what each one wrongly suggests.
Read the worked answer
'Being a new appointee' is a dangling modifier because it attaches grammatically to 'the schedule', suggesting that the schedule is the new appointee. The intended person is the section head. 'Which will be held in Lab 3' is ambiguous because 'which' could refer to the schedule or to the test; the intended referent is the test. 'They' is also ambiguous: it could refer to the trainees or to the section head, although the intended meaning is the trainees. The passive 'was circulated by the section head' is not wrong, but it separates the actor from the opening phrase and makes the dangling modifier easier to miss.
2. Rewrite the first sentence in no more than 35 words, preserving all the facts.
Read the worked answer
One acceptable version is: 'The section head, a new appointee, circulated the calibration-test schedule to all 40 trainees. The test will be held in Lab 3, and trainees must bring their ID cards.' This is 31 words. It removes the dangling modifier by placing 'the section head' next to its description, splits the sentence so 'which' is no longer needed, and replaces 'they' with the explicit noun 'trainees'.
3. Choose the correct verb in 'Neither the trainees nor the section head have/has received the revised timing' and state the rule.
Read the worked answer
Use 'has': 'Neither the trainees nor the section head has received the revised timing.' With 'neither ... nor', the verb agrees with the subject nearer to it. Here the nearer subject is 'the section head', which is singular. If the nearer subject were plural, the plural verb would be correct.