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ESL forum > Ask for help > Is it OK to say..    

Is it OK to say..



zvonka.rink
Slovenia

Is it OK to say..
 
Dear colleagues,
 
 
I have a sentence and I have a feeling it does not sound well:
 
-Mary showed not only that she is an excellent team player but also great anticipation and hard work despite her liabilities in other projects.
 
I would be really grateful for your comments and suggestions.
Thank  you.
 
 

16 Nov 2015      





Tapioca
United Kingdom

Hi Zvonka,
 
Grammatically, there isn�t anything wrong with the sentence, but it isn�t very elegant. Part of the reason is that she showed:
 
1. that she was an excellent team player
2. anticipation
3  hard work
 
As you can see, those are quite different kinds of things and therefore are perhaps better separated.
 
Also, �she showed hard work� sounds odd. Perhaps �she showed evidence of hard work�?
 
�Liabilities � is an odd word to use in this context. I think �weaknesses� might be better? I�d also change �projects� because it sounds too specific, but it depends on the original meaning. �Anticipation� is a skill that I�d associate with sport ( �anticipating the ball�), rather than management. So if this is about management skills, I might change �anticipation� to �initiative�.
 
If I rewrote it, it would look like this:
 
Mary proved not only that she is an excellent team player, but she also showed great initiative  and evidence of hard work despite her weaknesses in other areas.
 
Tap

16 Nov 2015     



zvonka.rink
Slovenia

Dear Tap,
 
Thank you for your suggestion. I really appreciate it.
Zvonka 

16 Nov 2015