[Grammar] (1), (2), (3)...

Example:

A. In order to solve the technical problem, people who (1) know the manual, (2) are multi-lingual, (3) have extensive knowledge of the technology, and (4) have the necessary trouble-shooting skills are needed.


B. In order to solve the technical problem, people who (1) know the manual and (2) are multi-lingual and (3) have extensive knowledge of the technology and (4) have the necessary trouble-shooting skills are needed.

Q: Both of the two sentences are correct grammar and punctuation wise?

Thanks in advance.

vcolts said:

Example:

A. In order to solve the technical problem, people who (1) know the manual, (2) are multi-lingual, (3) have extensive knowledge of the technology, and (4) have the necessary trouble-shooting skills are needed.


B. In order to solve the technical problem, people who (1) know the manual and (2) are multi-lingual and (3) have extensive knowledge of the technology and (4) have the necessary trouble-shooting skills are needed.

Q: Both of the two sentences are correct grammar and punctuation wise?

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

"A" is better.

vcolts said:

Example:

A. In order to solve the technical problem, people who (1) know the manual, (2) are multi-lingual, (3) have extensive knowledge of the technology, and (4) have the necessary trouble-shooting skills are needed.

B. In order to solve the technical problem, people who (1) know the manual and (2) are multi-lingual and (3) have extensive knowledge of the technology and (4) have the necessary trouble-shooting skills are needed.

Q: Are both of the two sentences [STRIKE]are[/STRIKE] correct grammar and punctuation wise?

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

There are far too many "and"s in sentence B.
In sentence A, it's fine except (in my opinion) you don't need a comma between "technology" and "and (4)".

I would also start with "In order to solve the technical problem, we need people who ..." as I feel that the "are needed" at the very end of the sentence is in danger of being consumed by the rest of necessity 4.

My version would be:

In order to solve the technical problem(s), we need people who (1) know the manual, (2) are multi-lingual, (3) have extensive knowledge of the technology and (4) have the necessary troubleshooting skills.

I agree with everything said, and would add that I'd delete "In order" and start right off with "To solve..."

If you want to omit the personal "we need" (although I like people and would have done it that way myself), you can say "Solving the technical problem(s) will require people who:..."

Bravo on the parallelism: Know, are, have, have -- all verbs. So many people don't do parallelism well.

Thanks everybody. I have two follow-up questions if you don't mind.

1. So while A is clearly the better choice, B is not necessarily wrong grammar/punctuation wise?
(I will definitely read and learn from what you wrote about the better options that you mentioned, but I am a little more concerned about whether what I have submitted is correct at this point.)

2. By the logic of the usage of parallelism, is the following sentence also correct?

Ex. Peter knows a lot about bicycles, is multi-lingual, and writes for his school paper.

Thanks in advance.

vcolts said:

Thanks everybody. I have two follow-up questions if you don't mind.

1. So while A is clearly the better choice, B is not necessarily wrong grammar/punctuation wise? That's right.

2. By the logic of the usage of parallel, is the following sentence also correct?

Ex. Peter knows a lot about bicycles, is multi-lingual, and writes for his school paper. Yes, it's OK.

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Bhai.