[Grammar] able to be a chemistry tutor is the recognition of my academic excellence.

[uktous]

Hi,

Question:
I think there are 3 mistakes in my sentences.
Could you please correct the mistakes that I point out?

Sentence:
2 years ago, I was a chemistry tutor.
This was important to me, because able to be a chemistry tutor is the recognition of my academic excellence.



Mistake1 :
“able to be….” Is not a noun clause.
I should rewrite it as “being able to be….”.

Mistake2:
“recognition is uncountable”, so saying the recognition doesn’t make sense.

Mistake3:
This was important to me is grammatically incorrect. Although this happened in the past, but it is still important for me now.

Thanks

 

[timmpage]

Hi,

Question:
I think there are 3 mistakes in my sentences.
Could you please correct the mistakes that I point out?

Sentence:
2 years ago, I was a chemistry tutor.
This was important to me, because able to be a chemistry tutor is the recognition of my academic excellence.



Mistake1 :
“able to be….” Is not a noun clause.
I should rewrite it as “being able to be….”.

Mistake2:
“recognition is uncountable”, so saying the recognition doesn’t make sense.

Mistake3:
This was important to me is grammatically incorrect. Although this happened in the past, but it is still important for me now.

Thanks

You are mostly correct.

For mistake 1, I would use "to become" or "becoming" instead of "being" because your academic excellence allows you to start working as a tutor. Similarly, I would use "became" instead of "was" in your first statement.

For mistake 2, I don't agree that "recognition" is necessarily uncountable. "Winning an Oscar is one form of recognition of an actor's excellence." However, I would only use "the" with "only", i.e., "the only recognition" which doesn't catch the current meaning. So, "was recognition" is best -- note that I changed the tense because becoming a tutor was recognition at the time.

Mistake 3: The expression "was important to me" is not grammatically incorrect although it might be inaccurate or incomplete. You could say, "was and still is important to me".