[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, bad keyword with email in body, phone number detected in title, potentially bad keyword in body, potentially bad keyword in title (233): HOW TO GET IELTS CERTIFICATE WITHOUT EXAMS WhatsApp::+1(437)7005035 by toeflpte33 on english.SE

So, how many miles have I ridden in 2019?

Your fate is sealed. Stay the night.

I'll give you zero extra portions.

Haha, typo. I meant in 2018. 2019 is still the future at this point.

If @RegDwigнt or @tchrist could change the 2019 to 2018 in the 5th message above this one, I would be grateful. At least until 2019. ^_^

Is my sentence below natural? Any suggestion is welcome!

Education should build student ability to analyze and solve problem rather than force them to memorize something that can be easily looked up and forgotten.

@ArtificialStupidity Education should build its student's ability to analyze and solve problems, rather than force them to remember facts that can be easily learned then forgotten.

@Tonepoet Thank you so much!

@ArtificialStupidity You're welcome. There's still some portions of it that are a little off in my opinion, and I'm not sure if memorize or remember is better, but I hope that it helps.

"its student's ability": why did you use "its" here, why don't you just "students' ability"?

@ArtificialStupidity In the original student is serving as a direct noun adjunct, but I wanted to change it into the possessive case and I felt that this required a determiner. You could also write a student's ability, but build student's ability just seems flat out wrong.

The reason I used its instead of a is because I wanted to generalize, rather than focus in on a specific student.

why don't use a plural form "students' ability"?

@ArtificialStupidity Oh right. I just forgot the rule regarding apostrophe order. It should be students'.

@ArtificialStupidity Well, actually, that's not entirely true, I was also considering singular form "An education should build a student's..."

In that case student would be singular rather than plural possessive.

But as I wrote it "Education should build its students'..." is required. Sorry 'bout that.

It sounds unnatural to say "education should build its students..." because of "its"

its is not needed i think.

('pedantry and purism' from Fowler)

which reminds me of:

@ArtificialStupidity Half the words you read or hear are not strictly necessary. But the extra ones often paint the conversation in different colors.

@Tonepoet Education should build its students' ability ...

@Robusto I know. XP

@Robusto Thank you!

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, bad keyword with email in body, phone number detected in title, potentially bad keyword in body, potentially bad keyword in title (233): HOW TO GET IELTS CERTIFICATE WITHOUT SITTING FOR THE EXAMS IN INDIA WhatsApp::+1(437)7005035 by gmatsolution97 on english.SE

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, bad keyword with email in body, phone number detected in title, potentially bad keyword in body, potentially bad keyword in title (233): HOW TO GET IELTS CERTIFICATE WITHOUT SITTING FOR THE EXAMS IN INDIA WhatsApp::+1(437)7005035 by gmatsolution97 on english.SE

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Few unique characters in answer (86): What's a single word for a person who doesn't follow the crowd? by ppsuccer on english.SE

@ArtificialStupidity See rote learning vs. critical thinking for examples of phrasing online. BTW, its is not natural in that sentence, as you realized. Education doesn't 'own' the students or anything in that sentence; the students 'own' the ability, so to speak.