The UVic Writer's Guide


Ambiguous (Amb)


Whether the error is one of grammar or diction, the comment ambiguous means that what you have written is confusing. An example of grammatical ambiguity is the following pair of sentences:

Biff is presented to us as an All-American boy. As he grows up all Willy can do is criticize his son.

This construction implies that it is Willy who is doing the growing-up, rather than Biff. (The sentences need to be reworked:

"Biff is presented to us as an All-American boy. As he grows up, he receives nothing but criticism from Willy."

Ambiguity can also be produced by a mistake in vocabulary (many examples are dealt with in the Dictionary of Usage (45Kb) --see, for example, the entries on allusion/illusion and continual/continuous or word order (is a "big boys' school" a big school for boys or a school for big boys?).


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Copyright, Department of English The University of Victoria, 1995
This page updated Sept. 24, 1995