From the course: Writing in Plain Language
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Avoid noun strings and smothered verbs
From the course: Writing in Plain Language
Avoid noun strings and smothered verbs
- If you're going to become a first class plain language writer, you have to become an anti-wordiness crusader. You must not tolerate any wording that makes sentences bloated. So let's take a look at two bad writing habits that make your sentences longer and harder to read. Fix these two problems and you'll take a huge burden off your reader. The first habit to break is writing sentences that have noun strings. What's a noun string? It's a series of consecutive nouns where all the nouns but the last one function as adjectives. Confusing, right? Well let's take a look at an example. The committee met to discuss the draft immigrant tenant rights protection regulations. While this sentence is grammatically correct, it's really hard to read because all the nouns before regulations are actually functioning as adjectives. The words draft, immigrant, rights, and protection all describe regulations, but the reader can get lost…
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