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I'm not a native English speaker, and I have specific concerns about the following text:

After starting my education in Veterinary Medicine and beginning to know diseases and issues that cause problems for animals and their owners, [comma] I have learned that poisoning was one of the most common problem which we had to deal with it. The interesting thing about poisoning is its diversity. It seemed surprising to me that beside of famous and notorious toxins, many essential elements and substances like Calcium, Sodium and even water can be considered toxins."

  1. Is this correct to use a comma in this situation (for animals and their owners, I have learned...)?

  2. Does it make sense to use surprising in this sentence? ("It seemed surprising to me that beside of famous and notorious toxins...")

  3. Shouldn't water start with a capital letter? ("...many essential elements and substances like Calcium, Sodium and even water can be considered toxins.")

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closed as off-topic by Dan Bron, Chenmunka, Mitch, Drew, choster Nov 15 '14 at 20:50

This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:

  • "Questions that can be answered using commonly-available references are off-topic. A list of these references can be found here: List of general references" – Dan Bron, Chenmunka, Mitch, Drew, choster
If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

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    I think you'd get better / more detailed answers if you asked this question on ELL. – Dan Bron Nov 13 '14 at 12:57
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    This passage isn't an example of well-written grammatical English. For instance, there shouldn't be an "it" in "which we had to deal with it". The tenses don't seem to be consistent to me, either; that "had" should be a "have". And the "of" after "beside" is wrong. – Peter Shor Nov 13 '14 at 13:14
  • Also asked on ELL: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/39410/… – Jason C Nov 13 '14 at 13:23
  • @JasonC Yes, because the OP was advised to by Dan Bron in first comment above!! :) – Araucaria Nov 13 '14 at 13:30
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    @Araucaria Yes, that is how I interpreted Dan's comment as well. – Jason C Nov 13 '14 at 13:40
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  1. The comma looks correct to me, as the sentence needs a pause there. It is a single sentence of the form "After [doing something], I have [done another thing]". That said, it is a very long and wordy sentence and would be better split in two.

  2. I see no problem in the use of "surprising".

  3. Water is just a noun, rather than a "proper noun" and so doesn't need to be capitalised (unless it's the first word of a sentence, like here). It would be better if Calcuim and Soduim weren't capitalised either.

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