If you want to boycott Mel Gibson, one should neither see Apocalypto or rent or buy copies of any of his earlier films.
This sentence contains two errors: an agreement shift in pronoun person and an incorrect pairing of correlative conjunctions.
The dependent clause "If you want to boycott Mel Gibson" contains the second person pronoun "you." The independent clause that begins with "one should" contains the indefinite pronoun "one." Both pronouns are used to refer to the same person (in a general sense) and should therefore agree in person.
In the phrase "neither see Apocalypto or rent or buy any of his earlier films," the correlative pronoun "neither" is paired with "or." "Neither" should be paired with "nor."
These versions of the sentence correct the two errors:
If you want to boycott Mel Gibson, you should neither see Apocalypto nor rent or buy copies of any of his earlier films.
If one wants to boycott Mel Gibson, one should neither see Apocalypto nor rent or buy copies of any of his earlier films.
Notice that the verb "want" has changed to "wants" in the second sentence to match the number of the singular indefinite pronoun.
Kid Rock's wedding ring is flashier and has more diamonds than Pamela Anderson.
This sentence contains a faulty comparison. Kid Rock's wedding ring is compared to Pamela. A ring should be compared to another ring. One way to correct this error is to make "Pamela Anderson" possessive. The noun "wedding ring" would be implied and the comparison would be logical.
Kid Rock's wedding ring is flashier and has more diamonds than Pamela Anderson's.
Entitled "Love is better when its' [sic] UGLY," the creator of Ren and Stimpy drew a caricature of Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn.
This sentence contains a dangling participle. A participial phrase is positioned so that it modifies the wrong word. The title of the caricature contains an error in diction.
The participial phrase "Love is better when its' [sic] UGLY" is located at the beginning of the sentence and therefore modifies the subject. The subject is "creator," but the creator is not entitled "Love is better when its' [sic] UGLY." This is the title of the caricature. Move the participial phrase closer to the word it modifies to correct the error.
The creator of Ren and Stimpy drew a caricature of Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn entitled "Love is better when its' [sic] UGLY."
In this position, the title modifies the caricature.
"Its'" is not a word. The proper word to use in this context is "it's," which is a contraction of "it is."
"Love is better when it's UGLY."
Note: The notation "[sic]" is used to indicate that a quoted word or words were written or spoken exactly as they are presented and that any error is not on the part of the writer.
Both Cher and Tori Spelling are holding auctions to sell their personal belongings. You can place a bid on either Cher's 16th-century terra cotta figurine of Jesus Christ or you can try to buy Tori's black lace Prada cocktail dress.
The second sentence contains an error in parallelism. One correlative conjunction is followed by a noun, and the other correlative conjunction is followed by an independent clause. Items joined by correlative conjunctions should be structured in a similar manner.
These are the structures associated with the correlative conjunctions:
- either Cher's 16th-century terra-cotta figurine of Jesus Christ [This is a noun phrase.]
- or you can try to buy Tori's black lace Prada cocktail dress [This is an independent clause: the subject is "you"; the verb is "can try"; and the direct object is the infinitive phrase "to buy Tori's black lace Prada cocktail dress." The noun phrase "Tori's black lace Prada cocktail dress" is the direct object of the infinitive "to buy."]
To correct the error, change the syntax to create structures that are similar.
You can place a bid on either Cher's 16th-century terra cotta figurine of Jesus Christ or Tori's black lace Prada cocktail dress.
Each correlative conjunction is followed by a noun phrase. It was necessary to remove the subject and verb of the independent clause and the infinitive portion of its direct object to form the second noun phrase.
You can either place a bid on Cher's 16th-century terra cotta figurine of Jesus Christ or try to buy Tori's black lace Prada cocktail dress.
Each correlative conjunction is followed by a verb phrase. The helping verb "can" is paired with both "place" and "try" in this structure.
Madame Tussauds New York has added a wax figure of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt to their museum's display of the likenesses of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
This sentence contains an error in pronoun/antecedent agreement. The antecedent of the plural pronoun "their" is the singular "Madame Tussauds New York."
While companies and organizations are composed of groups of people, the names of these groups are considered to be singular. Use a singular pronoun to refer to the singular "Madame Tussauds New York," which is the name of a company.
Madame Tussauds New York has added a wax figure of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt to its museum's display of the likenesses of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
Notice that in the original sentence, while the pronoun ("their") is plural, the verb ("has added") is singular. To many people, the use of the singular verb with the name of a company or organization sounds correct while the use of the plural pronoun seems fine. Remember that both the verb and the pronoun associated with the name of a company or organization should be singular.
