They must be an entity

[Nonverbis]

Upstream Proficiency by Virginia Evans and Jenny Dooley

Could you tell me is it a mistake or not? I mean the correspondence of the subject and the verb. Mayb entities and without 'an'? If everything is correct, why?

 

[emsr2d2]

There's no error. You can read the sentence as "Each one must be an independent entity". The use of the indefinite article and the singular follows on from the same construction in the previous sentence - "In no situation should they be used as a propaganda tool".

 

[Nonverbis]

Well, then is there a mistake here?

They must be independent entities?

 

[emsr2d2]

That's grammatically correct.

(Please use the Edit facility to correct the spelling error in your thread title.)

 

[Nonverbis]

The use of the indefinite article and the singular follows on from the same construction in the previous sentence

I suppose, this is not the same construction. They (all the newspapers) should not be used as a propaganda tool (one tool). They are all used just like one tool.

Anyway, this may be because of misunderstanding about what an entity is. I can't imagine that all the newspapers represent one entity. It is too methaphoric. Like medieval ages an corporation representing all of them?

 

[emsr2d2]

Does it help you to understand it if I reword it to "No newspaper should be used as a propaganda tool"?

The original doesn't mean that all newspapers should not be used like the same propaganda tool. They should never be used as any kind of propaganda tool.

All newspapers are part of one entity - the printed press.

 

[jutfrank]

I'm tempted to say it is an error, yes, as is the previous sentence. If a proficiency level student of mine wrote it, I'd correct it: They should not be used as propaganda tools. They must be independent entities.

I can't see a good reason not to talk about newspapers in the plural. Indeed, that is precisely what the writer does at the head of the paragraph. I think I could reasonably argue for keeping tool in the singular (since you may argue that newspapers constitute one tool) but not for entities, because I think the meaning rests on the fact that that these entities are seen as individuals, and hence a plurality of things. The whole paragraph in fact seems to me to be more about newspapers as discrete entities than about the press as a general entity.

 

[Tdol]

Well, then is there a mistake here?

They must be independent entities?

No, but the emphasis in the original is of a free press rather than free individual newspapers.