Bit unrelated, but could somebody highlight the comma splices mentioned in the comments section? As a non-native english speaker, I can’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
The second comma is unneeded. It’s not a comma splice though.
There are some really long sentences with awkward commas, but I believe they’re grammatically correct. It would just be better to break them into multiple sentences.
It's like reading (a method (like an algorithm (after the scholar Al-Khwarizmi) of communication, but see [2]), except maybe the braces don't quite match).
“ However, Levandowski personally filed today for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, stating that the presumptive $179M debt quite exceeds his assets, which he estimates at somewhere between $50M and $100M.”
I’m not an English expert, but I am a native speaker. Although the above sentence is understandable, when you look at it closer the sentence structure is a bit wonky. Anecdotally, I don’t like starting a sentence with “However,”, and this article has that twice. I think it is that kind of style where the author is making a statement and then forcing you to hold it in memory, so to speak, is what the commenter is referring to. It gets mentally taxing to keep track of all of the threads.
While that style might not be to everyone’s taste, that sentence definitely is grammatically correct and does not have any comma splices. Personally I don’t find it that awkward either.
Is is really meaningful, as a defence, to say a sentence is grammatically correct, if the meaning is unclear or the style is wretched?
Instead we should ask, if a sentence is unclear and wretchedly wrought, what purpose is served in pointing out its grammatical correctness? That is like admiring a two legged horse.
The author was no doubt under a tight deadline and just bashing it out with even less thought than I give to this post, but nevertheless has an MSc in Journalism (how is that an MSc?) and a BA, and can surely do better.
> However, Levandowski, had disputed the ruling.
The second comma is unneeded. It’s not a comma splice though.
There are some really long sentences with awkward commas, but I believe they’re grammatically correct. It would just be better to break them into multiple sentences.