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We should take care of those students with frequent absence of fathers who are busy with working when they come back home late at night.

In the sentence, I want to express two meanings:

  1. Those students usually finish school and come back home at late time at night
  2. When they get home, their fathers are usually not there, because they work outside very late.

Does the sentence fully deliver the meaning I want to express and is the word 'absence' used correctly? Would you please amend it?

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It would be clearer to say "We should take care of those students whose fathers are frequently absent and working when they come back home late at night".

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  • This one is much better. It resolves the complex noun phrase "students with frequent absence of fathers" in favour of a clearer structure involving a verb / clause. – ParaDice Apr 19 '17 at 10:53
  • Heh, I agree with ParaDice that this sentence is better as well, but again, I would suggest changing "they" to "the students" just to be more clear. – Teacher KSHuang Apr 19 '17 at 11:25
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Jumping back and forth between the students and the fathers makes the sentence overly complex. It would be more straightforward to reorganize the sentence along these lines:

We should take care of those students who return home late at night when their fathers are frequently absent due to work.

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  • Not sure if I would use "absent" in this manner as "absent fathers" sometimes has a different meaning. Not sure if I would use "absent" in this manner as "absent fathers" sometimes has a different meaning. Not saying it's wrong, just a personal preference. – Teacher KSHuang Apr 19 '17 at 11:25

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