They are typically produced using clays and other minerals.

Hello, native English speakers,

Ceramics can be defined as things that are neither organic nor metallic materials. They are typically produced using clays and other minerals.

Would the above sentence sound right?
In my view, the usage of "using" is grammatically wrong because "They" refers to ceramics and it's wrong to say "ceramics are using clays and other materials". What do you think?

Hirashin

Both sentences are perfectly fine grammatically. There's a small functional problem with the first sentence though: since an elephant is also a thing that is not an organic or metallic material, that would implicate that elephants are ceramics. So it might be better to shorten this: "Ceramics can be defined as materials that are neither organic nor metallic."

In the second sentence, "they" indeed refers to the ceramics, but the whole sentence is passive: the ceramics are not producing anything, instead they are being produced by some unnamed agent. It's this agent who is using clays and other minerals, not the ceramics. However, this "using" is not put in the passive, similar to Japanese (ceramicsはclaysを使って生産されます). Therefore this sentence is completely valid.

Aren't Elephants organic? I'm pretty sure they are

I agree the sentence is perfect the way it is... the word "clays" can also be substituted with the singular "clay" and still retain perfectly ok meaning. At first I thought "clays" was wrong since I don't often hear it in everyday conversation, but it is the correct plural form of the word. You just taught me something

Thanks for your help, lanthas and chingwa.

I have a further question.

Would the following sentences sound right?
(a) Ceramics are typically produced by using clays and other minerals.
(b) We typically produce ceramics using clays and other minerals.
(c) We typically produce ceramics by using clays and other minerals.
(d) Ceramics are typically produced being used clays and other minerals.
(e) Ceramics are typically produced used clays and other minerals.

Hirashin

chingwa: yes, of course an elephant is organic. However, it's not a material; it's an animal. Therefore it's better to emphasize that, while ceramics are neither organic nor metallic, they are still a material. This gives the reader more information.

The plural "clays" indicates that several different types of clay may be used.

Hirashin: a, b and c are correct and perfectly natural, but d and e are invalid.

Thanks for the help, lanthas.