Television is a tremendous entertaining medium as well as being very informative.

[Nonverbis]

Upstream Proficiency by Virginia Evans and Jenny Dooley.

Task (link the following pairs using the phrase given):

Television is a tremendously entertaining medium. It is also very informative. (as well as)

My variant:

Television is a tremendous entertaining medium as well as very informative.

The answer key:

Television is a tremendous entertaining medium as well as being very informative.

The answer sounds strange to me. Could you you tell me whether the answer key variant Ok and whether my variant is wrong.

 

[probus]

Your variant is grammatically wrong. An adverb (tremendously) is needed to modify the adjective entertaining. In my opinion the answer key is also wrong for the same reason.

 

[Nonverbis]

Could you show your variant?

 

[Phaedrus]

Task (link the following pairs using the phrase given):

Television is a tremendously entertaining medium. It is also very informative. (as well as)

My variant:

The medium of television is tremendously entertaining as well as very informative.

 

[tedmc]

The "medium of television" ("medium" used as a subject is rather general) sounds unnatural to me. I think the original is better.

I am not a teacher nor a native speaker.

 

[Phaedrus]

The "medium of television" ("medium" used as a subject is rather general) sounds unnatural to me.

If you like, we can convert "the medium of television" or "the television medium" (simple subject: "medium") to "television as a medium" (simple subject: "TV"):

Television as a medium is tremendously entertaining as well as very informative.
Television is tremendously entertaining as well as very informative as a medium.

 

[probus]

As Marshall McLuhan put it, talking about television: "The medium is the message."

 

[Tarheel]

Try:

Television is a tremendously entertaining and informative medium.

Or:

Television is entertaining and Informative.

 

[teechar]

I can't see how the answer key is grammatically wrong. "Being" is part of a participle clause, and such clauses are often used to provide description/details/purpose.
I agree that a more straightforward version would be "Television is a very informative and tremendously entertaining medium", but I don't consider the answer key ungrammatical.

 

[Tarheel]

You could say:

Television is entertaining as well as informative.

That's if you want to force "as well as" in there.

You could also say:

Television is an entertainment medium.

 

[Phaedrus]

I can't see how the answer key is grammatically wrong.

As Nonverbis has quoted it, the answer key has an ungrammatical phrase:

The answer key:

Television is a tremendous entertaining medium as well as being very informative.

We can't say that something is "tremendous entertaining," at least in modern English. We need the -ly suffix: "tremendously entertaining."

"Being" is part of a participle clause, and such clauses are often used to provide description/details/purpose.
I agree that a more straightforward version would be "Television is a very informative and tremendously entertaining medium", but I don't consider the answer key ungrammatical.

While the answer key may not be outright ungrammatical (with "tremendously" rather than "tremendous"), it does suffer from faulty grammatical parallelism.

This would be parallel:

Television is tremendously entertaining as well as being very informative.

"Tremendously entertaining" and "very informative" both being adjective phrases, that variant does not suffer from faulty grammatical parallelism.

We could also bring about grammatical parallelism by making each of the phrases a noun phrase:

Television is a tremendously entertaining medium as well as being a very informative one.

In the answer key, however, a noun phrase ("a tremendously entertaining medium") is being quasi-coordinated with an adjective phrase ("very informative").

 

[jutfrank]

I'd imagine the answer key said tremendously, and that Nonverbis simply made a mistake in the transcription.

 

[teechar]

Right. Something like that or even a comma can sort out that issue.
Television is a tremendous, entertaining medium ...
I was focusing on the latter part of that sentence "... as well as being very informative".
I still say that part is not ungrammatical.

 

[Nonverbis]

And the key:

 

[Glizdka]

I personally wouldn't use "as well as" like that. To me, the whole sentence needs to be reworked.

 

[Phaedrus]

This would be parallel:

Television is tremendously entertaining as well as being very informative.

"Tremendously entertaining" and "very informative" both being adjective phrases, that variant does not suffer from faulty grammatical parallelism.

We could also bring about grammatical parallelism by making each of the phrases a noun phrase:

Television is a tremendously entertaining medium as well as being a very informative one.

In the answer key, however, a noun phrase ("a tremendously entertaining medium") is being quasi-coordinated with an adjective phrase ("very informative").

On second thought, if we want to rescue "as well as being," I think the best parallelism can be brought about by forcing another "being"-phrase into the sentence:

Television is known for being a tremendously entertaining medium as well as (for) being very informative.

However, like Glizdka, I don't think "as well as being" is worth rescuing. There are more natural ways of stating the idea, many of which have already been mentioned.

 

[probus]

I have always considered "as well as" a synonym for "and", but readily admit this may be a regionalism (or worse).

 

[Glizdka]

How about "Television is a tremendously entertaining as well as exceptionally informative medium"?

The sentence feels unbalanced with a strong intensifier only on one side of the equation.

 

[teechar]

It's unbalanced because, for me, TV is none of the above.

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[Tarheel]

I don't think I've ever used "as well as" as I've never needed it.