by appealing to his better nature,

[Silverobama]

Hi,

The following sentence is from my old notebook. A native speaker said it's natural:

By appealing to his better nature, we persuaded him to change his mind.

I wonder if it should be:

We appealed to his better nature by persuading him to change his mind.

 

[5jj]

No.

Your revised version is wrong.

 

[Silverobama]

By appealing to his better nature, we persuaded him to change his mind.

May I ask what this sentence means?

 

[Rover_KE]

Google ‘appealing to his better nature’.

I’m sure you know what the rest of it means.

 

[tedmc]

It's not because your version is ungrammatical, but because it's illogical. The main point is "persuading him to change his mind". "Appealling to his better nature is "the means to an end". Reversing the order is like putting the cart before the horse.

 

[Tarheel]

It's not because your version is ungrammatical, but because it's illogical. The main point is "persuading him to change his mind". "Appealling to his better nature is "the means to an end". Reversing the order is like putting the cart before the horse.

I suppose you can use " like" in that expression.