<p>Despite receiving praise for its special effects, the movie was criticized because its characters were so weak as to be scarcely believable. </p>
<p>Would "despite having received" also work?</p>
<p>It sounds right, but it doesn’t work. Try this: Despite receiving candy, the baby still cried. or Despite having received candy, the baby still cried. Received is a verb and does not require the linking verb having. Also received makes it seem that it had once been praised.</p>
<p>Ok thanks. How is the following sentence construction correct?</p>
<p>Just as his mother collected Civil War memorabilia and his father collected commemorative stamps, so Andrew has started to collect autographs.</p>
<p>It sounds wrong, but it took me a while to figure it out. the key is “collect”. his mother and father collect so andrew collects to. Ignore examples. focus on the subjects.</p>
<p>Uh it depends on what you are trying to say. Despite having received is perfectly fine grammatically, but it is different than receiving… Having received is the present perfect participle, which is used to describe actions that happened before the main verb. It makes sense to say that even though the movie received praise in the past, it still gets criticized (closer to the present, but still in the past.). Just the present participle “having” means it is the same time period as the main verb. Thus, the original sentence would mean that the movie received praise but was still criticized at the same time…in the past.</p>
<p>I still don’t understand the use of “so” above. I thought it can only be used to connect two independent clauses?</p>
<p>
“Despite having received” does work in that sentence, but it changes the meaning of the sentence. The original sentence suggests that the praise and the criticism came at the same time: The movie was criticized even though it was being praised. The second sentence suggests that the praise had already occurred when the movie was criticized: The movie was criticized despite its long history of being praised. The first sentence might apply to movies that were widely praised at the time of their release but got criticized as time went on. The second sentence might apply to movies that have always had mixed reviews. Either way the sentence makes logical sense since criticism is always “despite” praise, whether the praise is present or past.
“Just as” means “in the manner that,” as in *Do as we do<a href=“%22Do%20in%20the%20manner%20that%20we%20do%22”>/i</a>, and “so” means “in the same way,” as in *I drank milk, and so did she<a href=“%22I%20drank%20milk,%20and%20in%20the%20same%20way%20she%20did%22”>/i</a>. You don’t need the “so,” but adding it in there makes sense since you want to emphasize the likeness (the similarity between two things).
I drank milk, and so did she = Just as I drank milk, so she did</p>