: Correctly phrasing a sentence containing "along with" followed by a list I have the following sentence structure and I am wondering about the best way to phrase it: "Along with A, B, C
I have the following sentence structure and I am wondering about the best way to phrase it:
"Along with A, B, C and D have been shown to influence the production of E."
What I am trying to convey here is that while it is well understood that "A" influences the production of "E", the reader should also be aware that "B, C and D" also influence the production of "E". Of course I could write it out in this fashion but this is much more wordy. As such, I am wondering if there is a structure or set of punctuation to make this meaning clear in relatively few words.
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@Annie587
The simplest way to reconstruct this for clarity, without changing any of the words, is to move the location of the dependent clause:
B, C and D, along with A, have been shown to influence the production of E.
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@Candy753
The way your sentence is currently worded isn't wrong, but it may cause some grammatical confusion.
You could read it as you intended:
"Along with A, B, C and D have been shown to influence the production of E."
Or you could read it as:
"Along with A, B, C and D have been shown to influence the production of E."
Which is somewhat grammatically confusing, and the reader will have to read it again to understand that "along with A" belongs in its own separate thought. Since the letters are placed so close together, this incorrect reading will probably be the way most people first read it, and it will probably cause unwanted bewilderment about what you were trying to say.
So first we should clarify what you mean and place the letters far apart. Maybe something along the lines of:
"Although A has been shown to influence the production of E, so have B, C and D."
But since you've asked for conciseness, we can probably shave some words here and make it much simpler:
"A influences E's production, but so do B, C, and D."
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