Mixed constructions are among the most challenging types of sentence errors to find an fix, as they can have many causes....and they can have many possible solutions.
What is a mixed construction?
This occurs when the parts of a sentence do not "match up" and connect correctly. Watch this video (from "Mastering the Fundamentals of College Reading and Writing") to learn more. For additional information about mixed constructions, with examples, please visit one of these helpful sites:
- Grammarly article, with tips and examples.
- Article from Lumen, with examples and tips on re-writing.
- An anonymous blog post with many examples and tips of correcting mixed constructions
- Mixed Construction video (from YouTube)
- IWU handout with examples
Here are a few examples:
1) INCORRECT: Nurses, a demanding profession, requires a significant amount of education and training.
(The problem here is that the subject is a group of people, and the predicate talks about the profession of nursing...not the nurses themselves.)
CORRECT: Nursing, a demanding profession, requires a significant amount of education and training.
2) INCORRECT: The new technology program we began to use it last semester.
(The problem here is that our subject is the technology program...but then we add a second, unexpected subject (we) and a subsequent predicate.)
CORRECT: We began to use the new technology program last semester.
Visit this page from Swarthmore.edu for more examples and corrections.
Ready to Practice?
- Practice 1: Identifying mixed constructions (McGraw-Hill)
- Practice video from "Mastering the Fundamentals of College Reading and Writing"
