Is this question correct?

[Tedwonny]

I am aware that after participle/modifying phrases, the subject must be those that are being described.

E.g.
Correct: hiding from the rain, the boy stood there for hours.
Incorrect: Hiding from the rain, the bus never came!

So, how about the following? Does the subject 'top academic achievers' have to come to the front after the phrase 'aside...lessons'? Or is this fine as well? THANKS

Aside from being hard-working and attentive in lessons, what other qualities do you find top academic achievers possess and share?

 

[MikeNewYork]

Your understanding of the rule is correct, but your sentence is correct. "Aside from" makes the difference.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think the difference is that 'Hiding from the rain' is a participial phrase while 'being hard-working ...' is a gerund phrase, but I am not a teacher.

 

[Tdol]

I am aware that after participle/modifying phrases, the subject must be those that are being described.

This is a common mistake made by native speakers, though if the meaning is clear, I wouldn't worry too much about it, which is why it happens so often. When you take the sentences out of context, the meaning becomes less clear, but I would worry about it more in formal texts than elsewhere.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I agree, Matthew.

 

[Rover_KE]

Please note that a better title would have been Hiding from the rain.

Extract from the Posting Guidelines:

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'

 

[Matthew Wai]

I hope the following sentence can help the OP understand why the rule in question does not apply to his sentence, but I am not a teacher.

'Aside from apples, what other fruits do you find the children like?'

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


1. "Eating a dish of yummy broccoli, I noticed that it had too much salt."

a. "eating" is a participle that modifies "I."

2. "Aside from eating that yummy vegetable broccoli, there are very few vegetables that I eat."

a. "eating" is a gerund.
b. It is the object of the preposition "aside from."
c. The prepositional phrase "aside from eating that yummy vegetable broccoli" modifies the whole main clause "There are very few vegetables that I eat." It does NOT modify one particular word.
d. In fact, it could even be written as "There are very few vegetables, aside from eating that yummy vegetable broccoli, that I eat."


Source: Quirk, et al., A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985), page 707.

NOTES: Those are MY sentences. I based them on what Professor Quirk et al. reported. If my sentences are wrong, I am responsible -- not the professors. / They also add that Americans favor "aside from" and that British people favor "apart from." / They also use the term "disjunct" to describe what most high school-level books call a "sentence adverb." That is, a word or phrase that modifies the whole sentence. Here is the sentence that they give: "The worst part of my life, apart/aside from the war, was when I was out of work." In my OPINION, that sentence could also be written as "Apart/aside from the war, the worst part of my life was when I was out of work."