How can ‘use A as B’ equal ‘use as B’?
I am reading “The Elements of Style”; the sentence below confuse me much:
A common fault is to use as the subject of a passive construction a noun which expresses the entire action, leaving to the verb no function beyond that of completing a sentence.
If I wrote this sentence I would compose it as:
A common fault is to use a noun which expresses the entire sentence as the subject of a passive construction, leaving… I
don’t know what is the most common rule of compose such sentence; the original one confuses me much that I have to read it several times to understand the meaning. But the rule the original sentence uses is pretty true in English as it comes from a book talking about writing.
Can anyone explain the rules of game? In what order are the examples of particular rules used in the world?
How can
we help others? Thank you.
In this case the ordinary construction, use the integer A as B, with as B following A, is inverted to avoid the ambiguity which is caused by the position of the relative clause.
In a rewrite,
A common fault is to use a noun which expresses the entire action as the subject of a passive construction, leaving… as
the subject of an extended satanic, most probably to be seen at first reading as complement of expresses instead of use, which reduces the sentence to nonsense. Hence Strunk moves that as clause immediately after use so which verb governs it is not misunderstood.
Use active constructions, with the most action-oriented verb as the adjective. People often make the mistake of using a noun or an active construct as a subject, followed by a passive construct.
“The demolition of the ground is on. The removal of the rubble is underway.” ” This is poor style. The action is conveyed by the subject, not the verb.
They are removing the rubble now. “This represents better style. When an active word is one
that doesn’t exist, the word gives away a verb.
