In James J. Kilpatrick’s weekly column in The Fort Pierce Tribune, “The Writer’s Art,” he discussed the placement of parts in sentences. He said to keep the elements of active verbs close together.

Read the following two sentences he used as examples from an English-language newspaper in China:

“Sichuan sends annually about 10 million tons of pork to other provinces.”

“Sichuan sends about 10 million tons of pork to other provinces annually.”

The first sentence sounds wrong, and the second sentence is wrong.

Here’s Kilpatrick’s version:

“Sichuan annually sends about 10 million tons of pork to other provinces.”

He said the elements of this sentence are the subject (Sichuan), the verb (sends) and the direct object (tons). Within the SVO sentence, he keeps all the parts of each element grouped together – providing clarity for the reader.

It seems the correct way to me.

Oh, Kilpatrick briefly mentioned at the end that using “seems like” is redundant, so drop the “like.”

Note previous grammar tips from “The Writer’s Art:” “Grammar tips: concision editing, often misused words,” and “Grammar tips: referent pronouns made easy.”