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"The"

"The"

(OP)
Here below is the opening of a training report. Could anybody point out whether "The" is needed in each bracket below:

------------------------------------------------------
In the IPD period, I attended different training courses covering a wide range of standards forms of contract commonly used in civil and building works such as ICE, ECC, CG/Works, JCT and PPC. From these CPD courses, I gained general knowledge about:
1. their areas of application.
2. (the) advantages of adopting one standard form.
3. (??)potential problems of different standard forms.
4. (the) criteria of choosing a standard form of contract.
5. (the) trend of construction procurement.
-----------------------------------------------------------

It would be great if you can give me the argument

Thanks!!!!!!!

RE: "The"

I'd put "the" in front of all of them in this context.  I'd also remove the "s" from standards in your first sentence.

RE: "The"

Any time you make a list you should be consistent.  Either use "the" in all of the phrases, or leave it out of all of them.  Either make them all plural or all singular.  If you start one phrase with a preposition, then start them all with prepositions, etc.  This will clean up most of your issues and make everthing look a little more organized.

RE: "The"

okay, here's the argument.

"From these CPD courses, I gained general knowledge about" should be rephrased so that it is a complete, gramatically correct sentence.   "I gained general knowledge about the following areas from these CPD courses:"

Some would add that none of your listed items should end in a period, since none is (by itself) a complete sentence.  

What you are writing is essentially a graphically-simplified version of the following sentence: "I gained general knowledge about the following topics related to standard forms from these CPD courses: their areas of application, the advantages of adopting one standard form, the potential problems of different standard forms, the criteria for choosing a standard form of contract, and the trend of construction procurement."   (the trend... toward what?)





RE: "The"

Is this homework?

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-06)

RE: "The"

Sounds like he is reviewing a professional experience report for someone applying for membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

I would leave the 'the' in as well.

RE: "The"

What ivymike said, including the part about dropping the periods.

RE: "The"

Quote:

such as ICE, ECC, CG/Works, JCT and PPC

Oh as a little aside, it should be GC/Works not CG/Works.

RE: "The"

i agree with ivymike's period comment, i'd terminate the points with a comma or a semi-colon ";" and finish the sentence (the last point) with a period.

personnally, i prefer putting the clause "from these CPD course" at the front of the sentence, as it links nicely with the preceding sentence (describing the courses).

i think you could start each point with "the", so you could move this to before the colon ":", as it is common to each point.  instead of "the" you could start each point with "their" (but some people don't like personification (using human terms with inanitimate objects); again, personally i prefer it as being more phural than "the".

RE: "The"

How about using the following descriptives and replacing numbers with bullets:

- Areas of application
- Advantages of adopting one standard form
- Disadvantages of using various standard forms
- Criteria used in developing a standard contract form
- Trends in construction procurement

RE: "The"

Just take the sentence with the list, and read to yourself the continuation of the sentence, using each listed phrase in turn, to see how it sounds.  Some of these want "the" and some do not.

In this fashion:
I gained general knowledge about their areas of application.

I gained general knowledge about (the) advantages of adopting one standard form.

I gained general knowledge about (???) potential problems of different standard forms.

I gained general knowledge about (the) criteria of choosing a standard form of contract.

I gained general knowledge about (the) trend of construction procurement.

Also, the standard procedure for making a list as you use in your example, the end of each phrase in the list should end with a semi-colon, as opposed to a period.

RE: "The"

Articles are often omitted in lists and technical instructions for brevity.  In formal correspondence, proper grammar would usually be observed.  It depends on who is to read the document.

When it doubt, include the articles.

Don
Kansas City

RE: "The"

I note that in the flow of natural speech, "the" can fit optionally in front of aall except the last one. Since "trend" is singular, you would need a mandatory "the" before it.

Another solution is to make it plural as CTEngr did.

Personally, I like CTEngr's approach the best.  It may not be the best grammaticaly, but it's the most straightforward.

=====================================
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