English poll!

[rowyn]

[Poll #1981252]

I have already overthought this question, so I'm not going to explain the background unless someone asks me to in the comments. I'm just curious what instinctive sense other people have on it.

Comments

[rowyn]

One of the things that annoyed me about rephrasing to avoid the participle is that it's pretty much always going to add to the word count: you get at least an extra conjunction or preposition, and possibly another noun/pronoun. I am sure you understand about not wanting to inflate word count. :D

[archangelbeth]

Oh, strewth.

If you absolutely had to get past someone who was insisting on the other meaning, swap it around: "Laughing at the joke, Mary walked over to the boy." (But, honestly, I'd not have flagged the thing in the first place as being at all unclear.)