I have a question about the grammar of this sentence: "Being designed to be as portable as possible, today's notebooks measure 5 inches wide and 10 inches long."
I wonder why the the author didn't just write "Designed to be as portable as possible,...". Is there any difference in meaning between "Being + V-ed" and "V-ed" in a structure like this? Does "being" suggest the progressive/continuous aspect?
The sentence is just better without the word "being." The only thing that "being" suggests is that the misguided author felt there weren't enough words in the sentence and wanted to add something.
Thanks a lot, Jacob.
In fact, that sentence was taken from a grammar test. Here's the origial test question:
*__________ to be as portable as possible, today's notebooks measure 5 inches wide and 10 inches long.
1. Being designed
2. To be designed
3. In designing
4. Having designed
Perhaps the test maker added the word "being" just to confuse the students?
Typo: "origial" should be "original"
Being designed to be portable is unwieldly, but not wrong. In fact,
"In designing" and "Having designed" are wrong. "Having been designed" works.
Clauses should be written in a way that follows chronological order.
Today's notebooks are designed to measure 5 inches wide and 10 inches long, in order to be as portable as possible.
In order to be as portable as possible, today's notebooks are designed to measure 5 inches wide and 10 inches long.
are both ideal.
as the word "to" is overused and sometimes imprecise in English, I like to use the construct
"in order to"
Regards, Paul V.