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The following is my question:

As a senior in high school, the biggest challenge I am now

facing is the college entrance exam.

Is this sentence correct? I think the subject of the main clause

shouldn't be "the biggest challenge". Can I change it this way,

"As a senior in high school, I am now facing the biggest

challenge: the college entrance exam."?

Please help me out. Thanks a lot.

[IanT]

The original is better, to be honest.

Imagine it with "that": "the biggest challenge that I am facing now is...."

The original carries the idea that there he/she faces other challenges, but the exam is the biggest.

However the reformulation, while grammatically correct, suggest that the exam is the biggest challenge of all, not just the biggest challenge facing this person.

Hope helps,
Ian
_________________
All my answers refer to British English.

www.EnglishSwearing.com - How to use all the bad words! ... and ... www.throdworld.com - Silly verses to make you happy.

You decide the price for both!

[Mary W. Ng]

"As a senior in high school, I am now facing the biggest challenge: the college entrance exam."

Your version is clear and grammatical. The introductory appositive phrase modifies the subject "I".

"As a senior in high school, the biggest challenge I am now facing is the college entrance exam."

In this sentence, the introductory appositive phrase modifies the subject "the biggest challenge I am now facing". The biggest challenge I am now facing must not be said to be a senior in high school.
_________________
Mary W. Ng
Helping students learn grammar
http:www.aimpublishing.com

[IanT]

Mary:

I respectfully disagree entirely.

"As a senior in high school" does not modify anything.

It carries the approximate meaning of "I am a senior in high school and..."

As a native speaker I can tell you than the original is 100% correct and normal, and slightly clearer in meaning than the reformulation.

Hope helps,
Ian
_________________
All my answers refer to British English.

www.EnglishSwearing.com - How to use all the bad words! ... and ... www.throdworld.com - Silly verses to make you happy.

You decide the price for both!

[Mary W. Ng]

Ian,

As a native speaker and an English teacher, you must have heard of Henry W. Fowler. According to Fowler, when "as" = in the capacity of, "care must be taken to avoid the mistake corresponding to what is called the unattached participle".

"As a senior in high school" is attached to the wrong noun. From a grammatical point of view, the first sentence is wrong.
_________________
Mary W. Ng
Helping students learn grammar
http:www.aimpublishing.com

[IanT]

Mary: thank you!

Henry W Fowler did indeed publish a "Dictionary of Modern English Usage"

In 1926!!

If you rely on him for your grammar rules, I'm afraid you will find yourself drastically behind the times!

The modern equivalent is Michael Swan's "Practical English Usage", which features no such warning.

So, I repeat, the first sentence is fine in modern usage.
Best wishes,
Ian
_________________
All my answers refer to British English.

www.EnglishSwearing.com - How to use all the bad words! ... and ... www.throdworld.com - Silly verses to make you happy.

You decide the price for both!

[Mary W. Ng]

Ian,

I believe we should agree to disagree.

According to prescriptive grammar, the given sentence is incorrect; according to descriptive grammar, it is acceptable.

However, were students to take tests based on prescriptive grammar rules, failing to spot this error would cost them marks.
_________________
Mary W. Ng
Helping students learn grammar
http:www.aimpublishing.com

[IanT]

Mary,

In so far as I continue to disagree with you: agreed!

Language evolves. Many things which were not correct when I learned English as a child are acceptable now.

A responsible teacher prepares their students to understand English and to communicate in English, and would prepare exams where correctness is based on contemporary usage, rather than on the rules of 86 years before!

If I understand correctly what you mean by the terms, then prescriptive grammar changes in response to changes in descriptive grammar, at least if the school is paying attention.

Any any rate, thank you for the opportunity to think carefully about what I mean and how to express it.

Best wishes,
Ian
_________________
All my answers refer to British English.

www.EnglishSwearing.com - How to use all the bad words! ... and ... www.throdworld.com - Silly verses to make you happy.

You decide the price for both!

[Mary W. Ng]

Ian,

You misunderstood my point. I was pointing out that there are certain standard grammar tests that are based on prescriptive grammar rules. If a teacher does not teach the students those rules, it will cost the students marks.

Do you see a problem with these sentences? If you do, you are using prescriptive, not descriptive, grammar rules.

1. He not only knew German but Latin and Spanish as well.

2. They will either have to cut costs or increase their sales.

Best wishes,
_________________
Mary W. Ng
Helping students learn grammar
http:www.aimpublishing.com

[IanT]

Goodness! Well, if I misunderstood you, I think you misunderstood me too!

The point I am making is that prescriptive grammar, while obviously very useful, indeed essential, for language learners, is always slightly out of date: it is an attempt to set temporarily in stone the rules of a language which is ever changing.

And I believe that the prescriptive rules should be updated as often as possible to reflect changes in usage. To tell students something is "wrong" if the vast majority of well-educated native speakers are using it happily, merely to allow the students to pass a test which should itself be updated, seems to me like a colossal waste of time.

I hope we agree up to this point. If not, please tell me why!

Furthermore, my opinion is that if there are, as you say, "standard grammar tests" based on prescriptive rules that are long obsolete, well, then those standard grammar tests are themselves obsolete and students should not be subjected to them.

I personally have not encountered any decent school who would, these days, set a test where, for example, the first sentence of the original question would not be accepted. Because the rule according to which it would be wrong is not just obsolete, but long obsolete.

The fact is that well-educated native speakers use the form "As a whatever, ..." and it is understood that the second part will contain a reference to the person referred to in the first part. It is not necessary, any more, nor has it been for some time, for the noun or pronoun to follow immediately after the comma, nor for it to be the subject of the verb in the second part.

If there are countries where students have to pass tests of obsolete grammar to gain a qualification, then those students have my sympathy. I advise them, where possible, to take the Cambridge exams (PET, KET, First Certificate, Advanced and Proficiency) where such problems will not be encountered.

For the record, I am personally quite an advocate of a level of correctness which many consider old-fashioned. I frequently lament changes in usage which arise initially from errors. I would not, myself, write either of your example sentences above.

But as a teacher, I would normally accept them. With advanced students (upper-int and onwards) I would tell them the "more correct" versions and explain that once they were necessary, but now they just sound agreeably old-fashioned and super-correct.

So, I imagine we still differ, at least a little. But I hope we now understand each other!

Best wishes,
Ian
_________________
All my answers refer to British English.

www.EnglishSwearing.com - How to use all the bad words! ... and ... www.throdworld.com - Silly verses to make you happy.

You decide the price for both!

[Mary W. Ng]

Ian,

While I do not agree with some of the prescriptive grammar rules, I believe most of them make sense because they help me see the connection between words, phrases and clauses.

I am sure you will not write either of my example sentences. Those were almost taken straight from a descriptive grammar book.

I agree we still differ, but not much. After all, the point of grammar is to clarify the meaning of a sentence.

Best wishes,
_________________
Mary W. Ng
Helping students learn grammar
http:www.aimpublishing.com