Final answer:
The sentence in question should be corrected to 'Over the past two years, apparel manufacturers have worked to meet the revised federal standards for the design of uniforms.' Following the old-before-new principle aids in making sentences clearer by structuring them such that known or previously mentioned information precedes new information.
Step-by-step explanation:
The sentence provided by the student contains a grammatical error that needs to be corrected to enhance the clarity and cohesion of the writing, following the best practices of English grammar such as the old-before-new principle.
First, let's correct the sentence by changing meeting to meet, so it reflects the correct form of infinitive after the modal 'have worked'. The corrected sentence should read: 'Over the past two years, apparel manufacturers have worked to meet the revised federal standards for the design of uniforms.'
Regarding the old-before-new principle, it's useful in creating well-structured sentences. This ordering helps readers better understand and follow the progression of ideas. Taking an example from LibreTexts™, rewriting sentences following this principle could look like this:
'The class planner, which all assignments and test content were detailed in, was given to students by the teacher yesterday. However, it did not include dates for turning in papers or for taking exams.'