Sentence of the Week #18

[From Michelle Yeoman and Barbara Gastel:]

Editing Solution: Last Week’s Sentence

As a reminder, below is Sentence of the Week #17:

Patients with flu-like symptoms were administered with antiviral drugs.

The error in this sentence is the preposition with, which should be removed. Thus, the corrected sentence reads as follows:

Patients with flu-like symptoms were administered antiviral drugs.

Administer is a verb meaning to give, apply, or dispense. One can administer justice, administer medicine, or administer a test. Notice that the use of a preposition (such as with) after administer is incorrect.

The word administered could have been replaced with given: “Patients with flu-like symptoms were given antiviral drugs.” One would not say “given with antiviral drugs.” Similarly, “administered with” is incorrect here.

As implied by the paragraph above, this Sentence of the Week has more than 1 correct solution. For example, “were administered with antiviral drugs” can also be changed to “were given antiviral drugs” or “received antiviral drugs”.

These latter wordings may be preferable. Because these wordings are simpler, the writer is less likely to make an error (such as including an unnecessary with). And simpler wordings generally are easier for readers to understand.

By the way, the wording “administered with” does have an appropriate use: One can use it to mean “administered along with”. (Example: “This medication should be administered with food.”)

Sentence of the Week #18

The sentence below has 1 definite error:

Dr. Lin is an associate professor in the Sociology Department.

Please correct the error, and submit the corrected sentence and any remarks as a comment on this post. We plan to provide and discuss the solution as a comment in about 2 days, as well as including it in the next Sentence of the Week post.

Do you have a sentence that you would like us to consider using as the Sentence of the Week? Please e-mail submissions to Michelle at msyeoman@gmail.com with the subject line “Sentence of the Week”. Submissions should be your own work—don’t nominate a colleague’s writing :). 

Please also feel free to e-mail suggestions relating to this series.