Dear Geist,

Help! What did my writing group leader think was so funny about a sentence I wrote in a short story? Here it is: Many died of exposure before they found help and shelter in the small village. It's a story about a terrible tragedy, not funny at all. She said I should study the sentence and figure it out. I'm going nowhere fast so here's my end run—asking you.

—Bernard A., Green Bay WI

Dear Bernard,

We admit to a wee chuckle ourselves. The sentence says that many people died, and then, after they died, they found help and shelter. That isn't what you meant, but it's very close to what you meant, and it's a tiny slip, and you're so familiar with the material that the slip—well, slipped past you. It's a hazard of writing that many a writer has bashed into.

Here are two versions of the sentence, to point out how a couple of words can make all the difference:

Many died of exposure before they found help and shelter in the small village.

Many died of exposure before they could find help and shelter in the small village.

—The Editors