As I have stated before, I am committed to becoming a good speaker and writer. I realize the need to improve my verbal and written skills, which is way from now on I would be please if you (or Curmudgeon, all of you, or he, which is correct pronoun) would correct my writing in my posts including this one I am writing now, in terms of grammar, punctuation, wordiness, and phrasing. I am not easily offended. I welcome suggestions and criticism. I’ll be more than happy for your advice, which I will surely take into practice.

I sure the following four sentence are correct because they were said by a news anchor in the day of the fatal Amtrak collision.

1. …believes Sanchez blew a red light and slammed head on
with a freight train, which had the right away.

2. Now the question remains if he was distracted while
texting on his cell phone.

3. Heart broken as they surveyed the crash sit themselves,
the teens who hope to be engineers themselves some
day refuse to accept Sanchez is at fault.

4. They say he loved his job and will never jeopardize it.

1a.
In sentence #1a, the words in parentheses are the words I would have use instead of the capital words beofre the words in parentheses if I had written the sentence, much less said them. I would like to know why the words I chose are wrong and the words of news anchor’s are right.

-- Heart broken as they surveyed the crash site (for)
themselves, the teens who hope to be engineers
themselves SOME DAY (one day) refuse to accept
Sanchez IS (was) at fault.

2.
I included the word (for) in “Heart broken as the surveyed the crash site (for) themselves…” in the third sentence of the bolded sentences because I at least when speak or write would have the tendency of using the word. I think it is poor grammar, but I want to know why it is poor grammar.

--Heart broken as they surveyed the crash site (for)
themselves, the teens who hope to be engineers
themselves SOME DAY (one day) refuse to accept Sanchez
IS(was) at fault.

3.
Please tell why the words in parentheses would be wrong in this sentence.

--They SAY (Said) he loved his job and WILL (would)(have)
never jeopardize it.

4.
This is my version of the third sentence above.

--Heart broken as they surveyed the crash site FOR
themselves, the teens who hope to be engineers
themselves ONE DAY refuse to accept Sanchez WAS at
fault.

Last Edited on 1-Oct-2008 4:10 PM

I sure the following four sentence are correct because they were said by a news anchor in the day of the fatal Amtrak collision.

Corrected: I am [insert verb] sure the following four sentences [use plural form] are correct because they were said by a news anchor [not a safe assumption!] on [not "in"] the day of the recent [or "most recent"; over the years, there have been several] fatal Amtrak collision

1. …believes Sanchez blew a red light and slammed head on with a freight train, which had the right away.

I found no comments from you on this sentence, but I see two errors in it. Make that three; one is a Microsoft error.

. . . [Microsoft replaces three periods in a row with a single character, when an ellipsis is properly a series of three periods with spaces between them] believes Sanchez blew a red light and slammed head on with [slammed head-on into or collided with—insert hyphen; use verb and preposition that go together] a freight train, which had the right away.

2. Now the question remains if he was distracted while texting on his cell phone.

This is fine.

3. Heart broken as they surveyed the crash sit themselves, the teens who hope to be engineers themselves some day refuse to accept Sanchez is at fault.

-- Heart broken as they surveyed the crash site (for)
themselves, the teens who hope to be engineers
themselves SOME DAY (one day) refuse to accept
Sanchez IS (was) at fault.

--Heart broken as they surveyed the crash site (for)
themselves, the teens who hope to be engineers
themselves SOME DAY (one day) refuse to accept Sanchez
IS(was) at fault.

Yes, you did repeat!

"Heart-broken" gets a hyphen. "For" is not needed. "Some day" should be "someday," meaning "when they grow up"; this occupation is the one they want to pursue. "One day" just isn't the right phrase here; I can't really explain why. Yes, Sanchez was at fault; the event is in the past.

4. They say he loved his job and will never jeopardize it.

--They SAY (Said) he loved his job and WILL (would)(have)
never jeopardize it.

The newsperson is telling a current story, indicating that the teens said it and are still saying it, that this is what they believe. However, the sentence should finish with ". . . would never have jeopardized it."

Now, for your introductory and explanatory material:

As I have stated before, I am committed to becoming a good speaker and writer. I realize the need to improve my verbal and written skills, which is way [why; probably a typo] from now on I would be please [pleased; it's a predicate adjective here] if you (or Curmudgeon, all of you, or he, which is correct pronoun) [as you addressed Curmudgeon specifically, you need a pronoun that agrees: second person singular, "you"—to include the rest of us, you could add to that, in parentheses, "and the rest of you too") would correct my writing in my posts including this one I am writing now, in terms of grammar, punctuation, wordiness, and phrasing. I am not easily offended. I welcome suggestions and criticism. I’ll be more than happy for your advice, which I will surely take into practice.

In sentence #1a, the words in parentheses are the words I would have use [used; past participle] instead of the capital words before the words in parentheses if I had written the sentence [plural], much less said them. I would like to know why the words I chose are wrong and the words of news anchor’s ["the words of the newsanchor" or "the newsanchor's words"—only one form of possessive at a time; "newsanchor" should be written solid; either insert "the" before "newsanchor" (if you are speaking of one) or remove the apostrope and use the plural (if you are speaking of newsanchors as a group)] are right.

I included the word (for) in “Heart broken as the surveyed the crash site (for) themselves…” in the third sentence of the bolded sentences because I at least when speak or write ["speaking or writing," please; the present participle is needed here] would have the ["a," please; "the" could be correct if this were the only tendence, or if the tendency had been explained earlier in the sentence] tendency of using [to use, please; the infinitive form is needed] the word. I think it is poor grammar [sometimes grammar, but sometimes syntax], but I want to know why it is poor grammar.

Quote:
a freight train, which had the right away.

The train had the right of way. "Right of way" is a legal term meaning (in this case) that it was the other train's right to go first.

I don't blame you!