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Oil palm plantation becomes the most focusing study in recent year.

the most focusing study or the most focused study?

Nathan Tuggy
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embio
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  • "A plantation" cannot become "a study". It's unclear what you are trying to say in the sentence. – CowperKettle Nov 30 '15 at 13:42
  • @CopperKettle: it is an observation; a part of a research – embio Nov 30 '15 at 13:52
  • Is it a particular plantation, or is it "Oil palm plantations have become subjects of most intense scientific scrutiny over the recent year"? – CowperKettle Nov 30 '15 at 13:57
  • @CopperKettle: A particular plantation VS Oil palm plantations; Does that make any difference in using the superlative form of "the most focused" or "the most focusing" problem? – embio Nov 30 '15 at 14:16
  • I'm not sure. I was just trying to get information on what you are trying to express with the sentence. "Over the last 12 months, or during this calendar year, scientists have been focusing a lot of attention on oil palm plantations"? – CowperKettle Nov 30 '15 at 14:20
  • If you are focusing on one particular oil palm plantation versus studying several or overall research, you need reword the statement. Maybe something like, "In recent years, an oil palm plantation in xxx became the focus of the study." – mkennedy Nov 30 '15 at 21:45
  • Unfortunately, the phrases given in the question are too far from a correct phrasing to be able to interpret the meaning, except very loosely. Please try a longer discussion around what you intend to mean. – Euan M Dec 01 '15 at 06:03

1 Answers1

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Well first I do agree with 'CopperKettle' that an oil plantation can not be a study, but, it can be studied. Now for my real answer.

You would say focused because it's past tense.

Oil plantation becomes the most focused study in recent year.

the "recent year" is in the past, therefore you would use the past tense there.

Sam Harrington
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  • Honestly, the sentence still doesn't make any sense. Also, I think it should be "...in recent years." – mkennedy Nov 30 '15 at 21:46
  • Yes there are some other english errors in the sentence but I wasn't asked to answer those I only answer the question asked, and the rest doesn't matter – Sam Harrington Dec 03 '15 at 16:43
  • Also it does make sense that there should be a past tense word there so I don't see why that answer does not make sense to you. – Sam Harrington Dec 03 '15 at 16:46
  • The rest matters because an odd-sounding sentence is still an odd-sounding sentence and could get flagged by an editor/colleague. As a native AmEnglish speaker I would interpret and rewrite this sentence as "oil plantations have become the focus of study in the past years." That's not what the OP implied in comments. – mkennedy Dec 03 '15 at 16:53
  • I completely agree but he didn't ask about that. though that would be much better. – Sam Harrington Dec 03 '15 at 17:13
  • I know he didn't ask about it, but sometimes you fixate on one thing, but, unfortunately, there's a bigger problem. I think we should be aware of that and miss the forest for a tree. – mkennedy Dec 03 '15 at 17:18
  • Ok I think you should comment on his question then, but my answer is still correct. – Sam Harrington Dec 03 '15 at 17:21
  • The problem is that this answer isn't grammatical English. Exhibiting a sentence as an exemplar is unhelpful if that sentence is in fact not grammatical. "In recent year" is simply wrong - you should have "in recent years" if that is what is meant. But the tenses are also all over the place. Are we saying it became the most focussed study or it has become the most focussed study? Hard to say. – Francis Davey May 04 '17 at 10:57