824 B
824 B
title, date, permalink, tags
| title | date | permalink | tags | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What's Wrong with This Phrase? | 2006-12-11T16:31:01-05:00 | /whats-wrong-with-this-phrase/ |
|
With apologies to the student who wrote it: I know something is wrong with what follows, but I can’t quite make my brain kick up information about what and why.
9% of the Senate consists of women…
When you say that something “consists” of something else, you’re usually saying that several something elses go into making up that something, right? So I think I’d be good with “The Senate consists of nine women and 91 men.” But to say that nine percent of the Senate consists of women sounds to me as though women are only one ingredient in that nine percent.
Am I right here? Or am I just getting dizzy from looking at the pile of grading in front of me?