In looking through Elocution Worksheet 1: Subjects, I am confused. I don't know what Error 3 is unless it's really like Error 2. And I have trouble calling Error 2 a subject error since I have always referred to that kind of thing with my kids as a verb problem since it is using a passive verb when active verbs are preferable. That appears also to be the problem with the sentence used for Error 3. To me talking about using the wrong subject seems to be a roundabout way to deal with the problem.
I see exactly what you are saying here. I have always taught error #2 as a verb problem: choosing passive voice insytead of active voice. And error 3 seems to be a variation on this... It all seemed to make sense to me when I was listening to Andrew teach it...
When I look ahead to the "verb" errors, they are not so much "verb errors" as they are like verb weaknesses. Maybe making this contrast explains why #2 and #3 are considered problems with the "actor" rather than problems with the verbs.
Maybe someone can help us both out with the disstinctions here...
The best way to explain this would be to say that subjects and verbs are intimately related and what happens to one affects the other, often directly. I don't have my materials in front of me so I can't answer the specific question, but I can say this much: since the first sentence is true, it is also true that sometimes subject errors will be caused by or cause verb errors. And thus to fix one is to fix the other. Verbs are almost always easier to fix than subjects.
As for the distinction between verb weaknesses and verb errors I would contend that to use a weak verb is an error. No grammatical or rhetorical principle is always right or wrong. They always involve judgment. So sometimes these three subject and three verb errors won't be errors at all. But the student can only learn to judge that rightly if he learns that they are usually errors - and why.
