Grammar advice

[Michelle Menezes]

Is this sentence correct?

"Since the parents in the book emphasize the importance of prayers and read the Bible every night, Emma occasionally dreamed about it."

I got marked down for this sentence, and the editor stated that it should be reading instead of read.

But I feel that it depends on how you read the sentence.
For example, if the parents emphasize on 2 things, i.e, importance of prayers AND reading the Bible, then it'll be reading.

But, if you see it as the parents emphasizing on one thing, i.e, importance of prayers. And (they) read the Bible, then it'll be read.

I hope my explanation makes sense. I don't know how to do it in grammatical terms. I could be wrong, so I'd like your opinion.

[MsH2k]

You are right. Depending on the intent, this sentence is correct as written. If read is used as a verb and is part of the compound predicate (consisting of emphasize and read), it is correct. The parents do two things: 1) emphasize the importance of prayers and 2) read the Bible every night.

If the phrase “the importance of prayers and read the Bible every night” is intended as a compound object or noun phrase used as a direct object of the verb emphasize, then reading would be more appropriate because it would be a gerund, maintaining the parallelism of the object phrase (both importance and reading would be nouns).

[Samuel Mamo]

I think if you want it to be read like the second, which is;
"importance of prayers. And (they) read the Bible, then it'll be read."
you should add another comma before "and". Other wise; it would be connected with the clause of 'importance oc prayer'.

[Michelle Menezes]

You are right. Depending on the intent, this sentence is correct as written. If read is used as a verb and is part of the compound predicate (consisting of emphasize and read), it is correct. The parents do two things: 1) emphasize the importance of prayers and 2) read the Bible every night.

If the phrase “the importance of prayers and read the Bible every night” is intended as a compound object or noun phrase used as a direct object of the verb emphasize, then reading would be more appropriate because it would be a gerund, maintaining the parallelism of the object phrase (both importance and reading would be nouns).

Thank you so much! This is very helpful. Many times, I know that a sentence is correct or wrong, but I struggle because I don't know how to explain it using Grammatical terms.

[MsH2k]

Thank you so much! This is very helpful. Many times, I know that a sentence is correct or wrong, but I struggle because I don't know how to explain it using Grammatical terms.

You’re very welcome. I know what you mean. Sometimes using grammar rules reminds me of referencing formulas and theorems in high school math!

[Chidinma Udeh]

In my opinion, if you want it to be read the second way (that is, to mean two different things), I will suggest you add a "comma" before "and", that way, "read the bible" will automatically become an independent clause, and will not be tied to "emphasize the importance of prayers". I hope my suggestion helps.