I would really appreciate your thoughts on the following because despite the rules of subject-verb agreement, I am not that convinced of the singular version here.
First thoughts:
1) "commitment" can be either a mass noun or a count noun (e.g., as stated on
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/commitm... There is a slight shift in meaning between both, so I would stick to the former.
2) Whenever possible, English avoids repetition like the plague.
3) I disagree with Robin regarding "facets" - the effort put into landscape management and customer service can be very different.
Now if I do include the omitted repetition, the sentence looks like this:
Our commitment to landscape management and our commitment to customer service are both a career and a passion.
To avoid repetition, we trade in the second "commitment" for the first synonym Oxford mentions (dedication):
Our commitment to landscape management and our dedication to customer service are both a career and a passion.
Voila, two subjects. Related:
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/97459/singular-ve...http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-choose-verbs-fo...