Grammar Question

[Brock A Schmitt]

Please Help

I have a college degree however I am no genious when it comes to english and grammar. In the following sentence there has been discussion between myself and coworkers as to what this sentence means? Being said, I am hoping that someone in english field with expertice can make it make sense.

Only one person from a family shall be employed as a permenant employee by the City in the same department or division or in any City employement, so that they would be working in close proximity on a regular day to day basis.

My question would be, using proper sentence structure, does the statement after the comma define define only city employment or all items listed before the comma?

Thank you in advance, teachers truely are the key to the future!

 

[tedtmc]

Only one person from a family shall be employed as a permenant employee by the City in the same department or division or in any City employement, so that they would be working in close proximity on a regular day to day basis.

The sentence is not clear.
Who is 'they'? All the 'persons' from each family?

'Would be' or 'would not be' working in close proximity?
I thought the idea of employing one person only from each family is to prevent employees from being too close to each other at the workplace?

 

[bhaisahab]

Please Help

I have a college degree however I am no genious when it comes to english and grammar. In the following sentence there has been discussion between myself and coworkers as to what this sentence means? Being said, I am hoping that someone in english field with expertice can make it make sense.

Only one person from a family shall be employed as a permenant employee by the City in the same department or division or in any City employement, so that they would be working in close proximity on a regular day to day basis.

My question would be, using proper sentence structure, does the statement after the comma define define only city employment or all items listed before the comma?

Thank you in advance, teachers truely are the key to the future!

Where does this sentence come from? It's almost incomprehensible.

 

[mmasny]

Only one person from a family shall be employed as a permenant employee by the City in the same department or division or in any City employement, so that they would be working in close proximity on a regular day to day basis.

My question would be, using proper sentence structure, does the statement after the comma define define only city employment or all items listed before the comma?

I don't understand your sentence, but maybe I can help a little bit with the comma question. As far as I know, there is no commonly accepted rule regarding this matter. It can often be a cause of misunderstandings. Here is one famous example of comma-ambiguity (quite different from yours I guess): "highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector." This is from The Times.
The general advice is to avoid such things and try to reword them if possible.

 

[RonBee]

Only one person from a family shall be employed as a permanent employee by the City in the same department or division or in any City employment[STRIKE], so that they would be working in close proximity on a regular day to day basis[/STRIKE].

The point is to avoid having them work closely on a regular basis.
:roll: