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I have a sentence:

Take a look at this math problem and try to so solve it.

The Grammar Checker told me: “This sentence contains Issue: Confusing modifiers.”

But where?

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yes, it is a typo! – user471011 Aug 26 '12 at 23:31
Then you should edit the question. – Dilawar Aug 26 '12 at 23:35
@Dilawar: user471011 was actually answering my comment, but I had deleted it to post it as an answer instead. – w3d Aug 26 '12 at 23:36
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Is that "so" your own typo? What about beauty is unforeseeable; it cannot be deduced from past experience. Indeed when I try to so deduce beauty, to arrive at a mental average, the result is lifeless? There's no real syntactic difference between deduce and solve here. – FumbleFingers Aug 26 '12 at 23:43
@FumbleFingers Agreed. – tchrist Aug 26 '12 at 23:43
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closed as off topic by FumbleFingers, jwpat7, Mahnax, tchrist, MετάEd Aug 29 '12 at 7:07

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2 Answers

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"Take a look at this math problem and try to so solve it."

The "so" is your confusing modifier, but this also looks like a typo?

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We don't have the preceding context, but I don't think it has to be a typo. – FumbleFingers Aug 26 '12 at 23:37
Mightn’t it mean: Take a look at this math problem, and try to thus solve it. – tchrist Aug 26 '12 at 23:42
@tchrist: Erm... that's what I have suggested in my answer. But OP hasn't given enough context to know if there's a plausible referent for "thus/so", so we're a bit stuck at the moment. – FumbleFingers Aug 26 '12 at 23:45
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Or perhaps, "Take a look at this math problem and try to solve it like so."? But the OP has already admitted that it was in fact a typo in their original text, which they have copied verbatim into the question. (I actually deleted my original comment that the OP answers - a timing issue unfortunately.) – w3d Aug 26 '12 at 23:45
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The word "so" is pretty confusing there. I assume it's referring back to a specific method of solving this type of maths problem, given earlier in the text ("so" here means "in such a way").

It would be easier to parse (and not be seen as a typo!) if the sentence were rephrased as...

"Take a look at this math problem and try to solve it using the method just presented."

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