Grammar

Yangtze

Suggest improvements for the highlighted problem areas: Liyao told Lu that she should explain how the Yangtze River can be both a lake and a dam. At Lake Poyanghu during the winter, the river comprises small streams on a broad lake bed. In the summer, high waters fill the reservoir and curb the inflow of tributaries like a dam. Liyao also described how she tried to visit a friend which had called for help from the other side of the lake. It was summer and they always warn you about the high waters. While rowing across Lake Poyanghu, Liyao became exhausted and decided, with great regret, to return home. It was too far across. Answer: - Pronoun: Too Far Away - When a pronoun is used far away from the noun it replaces, readers can have trouble recognizing what is being referred to. Our opening paragraph has an example: While rowing across Lake Poyanghu, Liyao became exhausted and decided, with great regret, to return home. It was too far across. Obviously the pronoun it refers to the lake. But, while the reader's eye is moving quickly through the sentences, the word it comes right after the word home. For most readers, this causes a moment of ambiguity, and that is not good. Don't make your readers work too hard! This type of ambiguity can be corrected by substituting the noun for the pronoun: The lake was too far across. or: The full lake was too wide to cross.

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