Grammar Question

Despite an interest in English, grammar has never been my strong suit. I need to know which of the following sentences is correct and why it’s correct. This is not a matter of style but grammatical correctness.

  1. When comparing compliance and persistence with weekly and daily therapy, the compliance and persistence with weekly therapy were consistently higher than those with daily therapy.

  2. When comparing compliance and persistence with weekly and daily therapy, the compliance and persistence with weekly therapy were consistently higher than daily therapy.

Thanks for the help.

IMO, #1. Otherwise you’re comparing the compliance/persistence to the therapy, rather than to the other compliance/persistence.

I’d drop the whole first part – it’s a dangling modifier, and the rest of the sentence does not reveal who is doing the comparing – and redraft the rest so that nothing needs to be repeated:

Compliance and persistence were consistently higher with weekly therapy than with daily therapy.

Neither is correct, since they are both implying that “the compliance and persistence with weekly therapy” are doing the comparing, and the second part of each sentence is clumsy.

It would be better to rewrite the whole thing.

Compliance and persistence were consistently higher for those undergoing weekly therapy as compared to daily therapy.

Weekly therapy consistently resulted in higher compliance and persistence than daily therapy.

Or, shorten #1:

  1. Compliance and persistence with weekly therapy were consistently higher than with daily therapy.

ETA: Giles’s re-written #1 is even better!

Good stuff. Thanks.

I hate it when my modifier is dangling… :smiley: