5 Errors of Restriction

5 Errors of Restriction 5 Errors of Restriction 5 Errors of Restriction By Mark Nichol 1. â€Å"Bank of America’s purchase of Fleet Boston for $47 billion will create the biggest bank in the United States with thirty-three million customers.† The lack of punctuation in this sentence invites the impression that of all the banks in the United States with thirty-three million customers, the Bank of America will be the largest. But the last phrase merely refers to the size of the customer base after the merger. This additional information should be set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma: â€Å"Bank of America’s purchase of Fleet Boston for $47 billion will create the biggest bank in the United States, with thirty-three million customers.† Alternatively, the information can be inserted parenthetically into the middle of the sentence: â€Å"Bank of America’s purchase of Fleet Boston for $47 billion, which boosts its customer base to thirty-three million, will create the biggest bank in the United States.† 2. â€Å"Take a visit to the military test kitchen where bad grub is taken very seriously.† The implication here is that among military test kitchens, the one in question is the only one that focuses on bad food. However, it’s quite likely there’s only one military test kitchen, a fact this sentence indicates by the simple insertion of a comma: â€Å"Take a visit to the military test kitchen, where bad grub is taken very seriously.† (If there is more than one, the implied multiplicity of kitchens is distracting; a simple change of the article preceding the noun phrase will remove the obstacle: â€Å"Take a visit to a military test kitchen where bad grub is taken very seriously.†) 3. â€Å"Yesterday, ChevronTexaco announced the deal that’s expected to be complete within six months.† The reader might get the impression that of two or more deals, this one’s expected to take up to six months to complete. But there’s only one deal, and it should be complete within six months. To communicate that information, set the time frame apart from the phrase about the announcement, and change that to which: â€Å"Yesterday, ChevronTexaco announced the deal, which is expected to be complete within six months.† 4. â€Å"Daniel Libeskind is the architect of the proposed $43 million Contemporary Jewish Museum project in San Francisco that will begin construction next year.† This example is less likely than the previous one to confuse readers about the number of similar events expected to occur; it’s unlikely that anyone will assume that more than one museum project is in the offing. However, the sentence is constructed so that such distraction is possible. To clarify, undertake the same revision as in the example above: â€Å"Daniel Libeskind is the architect of the proposed $43 million Contemporary Jewish Museum project in San Francisco, which will begin construction next year.† 5. â€Å"The company’s incident-response can quickly and reliably identify events, which threaten an organization’s security posture.† Note that this sentence, by contrast, errs in the other direction: The wording and punctuation implies that all events are a threat to the organization’s security posture. But the sentence intends to refer to a restricted type of events, so it should be worded to convey that meaning: â€Å"The company’s incident-response can quickly and reliably identify events that threaten an organization’s security posture.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Exquisite AdjectivesTime Words: Era, Epoch, and EonCapitalizing Titles of People and Groups

Conch Facts

Conch Facts A queen conch (Lobatus  gigas) is an invertebrate mollusk that produces what many people think of as the iconic seashell. This shell is often sold as a souvenir, and its said you can hear the sound of ocean waves if you put a conch (pronounced konk,) shell to your ear (although what youre actually hearing is your own pulse). Fast Facts: Conch Scientific Name: Lobatus gigasCommon Names: Queen conch, pink conchBasic Animal Group: InvertebrateSize: 6–12 inchesWeight: Up to 5 poundsLifespan: 30 yearsDiet:  HerbivoreHabitat: Off coastlines adjacent to the Caribbean SeaConservation Status: Not Evaluated Description Conchs are mollusks, marine snails that build elaborate shells as a home and a form of protection from predators. The shell of the queen conch or pink conch shell ranges in size from about six inches to 12 inches in length. It has between nine and 11 whorls on the protruding spire. In adults, the expanding lip points outward, rather than curving inward, and the last whorl has a strong spiral sculpture on its surface. Very rarely the conch may produce a pearl. The adult queen conch has a very heavy shell, with a brown horny organic exterior cover (called periostracum) and a bright pink interior.  The shell is strong, thick, and very attractive, and is used to make shell tools, as ballast, to form jewelry. It is often sold unmodified as a collectible and the animal is also fished and sold for its meat. Damocean/Getty Images Species There are over 60 species of sea snails, all of which have medium- to large-sized (14 inches) shells. In many species, the shell is elaborate and colorful. All conchs are in the Kingdom: Animalia, the Phylum: Mollusca, and the Class: Gastropoda. True conchs like the queen are gastropods in the family Strombidae. The general term conch is also applied to other taxonomic families, such as the Melongenidae, which include the melon and crown conchs. The queen conchs scientific name was Strombus gigas until 2008 when it was changed to Lobatus  gigas to reflect current taxonomy. Habitat and Distribution The conch species live in tropical waters throughout the world, including the Caribbean, West Indies, and the Mediterranean. They live in relatively shallow waters, including reef and seagrass habitats. Queen conchs live in several different habitat types in the Caribbean, along the Gulf coasts of Florida and Mexico, and in South America. At different depths and aquatic vegetation, their shells have different morphologies, different spine patterns, and various overall lengths and spire shape. The samba conch is the same species as the queen, but compared to a typical queen conch, the samba lives in a shallow environment, is much shorter and very thickly shelled with a darker periostracum layer. Diet and Behavior Conchs are herbivores that eat sea grass and algae as well as dead material. In turn, they are eaten by loggerhead sea turtles, horse conchs, and humans. A queen conch can grow to be over a foot long and can live for as long as 30 years- other species have been known to live to 40 or more. Queen conch diets, like most of the conchs in the family, are herbivorous. Larvae and juveniles feed mainly on algae and plankton, but as growing subadults, they develop a long snout that allows them to select and consume bigger pieces of algae, and as juveniles they feed on seagrass. Adult conchs wander for miles instead of staying in one place. Rather than swimming, they use their feet to lift and and then throw their bodies forward. Conchs also are good climbers. The average home range of a queen conch varies from a third of an acre to nearly 15 acres. They move within their range at the greatest speed in the summer during their reproductive season, when males search for mates and females look for egg-laying habitats. They are social creatures and reproduce best in aggregations. Reproduction and Offspring Queen conchs reproduce sexually and can spawn year-round, depending on latitude and water temperature- in some locations, females migrate from offshore feeding areas in the winter to summer spawning grounds. Females can store fertilized eggs for weeks and multiple males can fertilize any single egg mass during that time. The eggs are laid in shallow coastal waters with sandy substrates. Up to 10 million eggs can be laid by a single individual each spawning season, depending on the availability of food.  Ã‚   Eggs hatch after four days and the planktonic larvae (known as veligers) drift with the current for between 14 to 60 days. After reaching lengths of about a half-inch, they sink to the sea bottom and hide. There they morph into juvenile forms and grow to about a 4-inch length. Finally, they move into nearby seagrass beds, where they aggregate in masses and stay until sexually mature. That happens at about 3.5 years of age when they reach their maximum adult length and their outer lips are at least 0.3–0.4 inches thick. After the queen conch reaches maturity, the shell stops growing in length but continues to grow in breadth and its outer lip begins to expand. The animal itself also stops growing, except for its sexual organs which continue to grow in size. The lifespan of a queen conch is approximately 30 years. Conservation Status The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has not as yet evaluated conchs for their status. But conchs are edible, and in many cases, have been overharvested for meat and also for souvenir shells. In the 1990s, queen conchs were listed in Appendix II under the  Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) agreement, regulating international trade. Queen conchs are also harvested for their meat in other areas of the Caribbean where they are not yet endangered. Much of this meat is sold to the United States. Live conchs are also sold for use in aquariums. Sources Boman, Erik Maitz, et al. Variability in Size at Maturity and Reproductive Season of Queen Conch Lobatus Gigas (Gastropoda: Strombidae) in the Wider Caribbean Region. Fisheries Research 201 (2018): 18–25. Print.Final Status Report: Queen Conch Biological Assessment. Peer Review Plans, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), 2014.Kough, A. S., et al. Efficacy of an Established Marine Protected Area at Sustaining a Queen Conch Lobatus Gigas Population During Three Decades of Monitoring. Marine Ecology Progress Series 573 (2017): 177–89. Print.Stoner, Allan W., et al. Maturation and Age in Queen Conch (Strombus Gigas): Urgent Need for Changes in Harvest Criteria. Fisheries Research 131-133 (2012): 76–84. Print.Tiley, Katie, Mark A. Freeman, and Michelle M. Dennis. Pathology and Reproductive Health of Queen Conch (Lobatus Gigas) in St. Kitts. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 155 (2018): 32–37. Print.