"much thought put into" vs "put much thought into"

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Scott
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"much thought put into" vs "put much thought into"

Post by Scott »

Are both the following grammatically correct or is one or both wrong:

1. "Robert has much thought put into this plan."

2. "Robert has put much thought into this plan."


If one is incorrect, why is it incorrect? What rule can we use to know how to properly order similar sentences? What other words besides "put" adhere to the same rule?
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Post by cpru68 »

I don't know how else to explain it, but my Grammarly flagged this as not grammatically correct. So, that is why I did not mark it as correct. Reading the two sentences as you have listed here, the first one seems to have more clarity to me than the second one. But, if that is just my opinion, then I think it shouldn't be counted as wrong, but as I said, it was flagged, so I marked it as incorrect.
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Post by MrsCatInTheHat »

I find the first sentence awkward. The second, "put much thought into" is a common phrase. No idea about the technical rules.
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Post by Louanne Piccolo »

I was going to say they were both correct, but they mean different things until I reread it and saw that it wasn't written, "Robert has much thought put into HIS plan," but, "Robert has much thought put into THIS plan".

So, I'm going to say that the first is incorrect and the second correct.
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Post by bookowlie »

Neither sentence is technically wrong. I don't think editors should mark things right or wrong for the sole reason of running the review through Grammerly.
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Post by bookowlie »

I agree with CatintheHat that the first sentence is awkward. Still, it's not that bad, compared to other phrasing I've seen.
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Post by EvaDar »

I know of no rules about this particular situation with "put." However, the first sentence verges on creating a passive voice with "much thought put into this plan." https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writ ... voice.html
Still, I don't think I would call this an error.

Sentence two is active voice and therefore is preferable. "Robert has put much thought into this plan." Robert is actively putting thought into the plan. It is a clearer communication. Grammarly often flags passive voice as an error. Not sure if that's what happened. For book reviews, I don't consider passive voice an error, but if overused, an editor may mention it.
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Post by Scott »

Using a passive voice certainly isn't grammatically incorrect, even though many automated spelling and grammar checkers flag it. So perhaps this goes to show why the automated tools, despite being helpful, cannot be relied on solely. They miss many things that errors and mark many things as errors that aren't. So they can help a human proofreader spot something that deserves extra attention, but they can't replace a human editor (at least with today's technology).
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Post by bookowlie »

Scott wrote: 13 Jan 2019, 07:56 Using a passive voice certainly isn't grammatically incorrect, even though many automated spelling and grammar checkers flag it. So perhaps this goes to show why the automated tools, despite being helpful, cannot be relied on solely. They miss many things that errors and mark many things as errors that aren't. So they can help a human proofreader spot something that deserves extra attention, but they can't replace a human editor (at least with today's technology).
Good point. This is a prime example of why the editors should not be relying on automated checkers to mark off errors.
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Post by bookowlie »

Scott wrote: 13 Jan 2019, 07:56 Using a passive voice certainly isn't grammatically incorrect, even though many automated spelling and grammar checkers flag it. So perhaps this goes to show why the automated tools, despite being helpful, cannot be relied on solely. They miss many things that errors and mark many things as errors that aren't. So they can help a human proofreader spot something that deserves extra attention, but they can't replace a human editor (at least with today's technology).
@Scott You should consider moving this thread to the Editor Discussion forum, since it's a good example of why editors should rely on automated spelling/grammar programs.
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Post by MsTri »

CatInTheHat wrote: 10 Jan 2019, 16:03 I find the first sentence awkward. The second, "put much thought into" is a common phrase. No idea about the technical rules.
I agree. To me, that first sentence is like a visual version of nails on a chalkboard. And while it's irrelevant, I also think that elementary school teachers would mark it off for being out of order.
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