Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A When mentioning two items in a sentence, should I specify which one I'm referring to in the next one?

The second option is OK, if you can smooth out the phrasing. What would be more ideal is if you could rephrase to avoid the problem, to avoid lumping the two items together in the first place - fo...

posted 9y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T20:06:02Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/12887
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:45:41Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/12887
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T03:45:41Z (over 4 years ago)
The second option is OK, if you can smooth out the phrasing.

What would be more ideal is if you could rephrase to avoid the problem, to avoid lumping the two items together in the first place - for example:

> She had green eyes, and curly hair that looked like a cluster of ferns in a mountain forest.

Another option is completing the list, and then finding some way to go back and focus on one individual item. _You should be able to find some justification for this,_ because you've already found some reason that the one item deserves extra attention. For example:

> She had green eyes and curly hair. Oh, such extraordinarily curly hair! -- it looked like a cluster of ferns in a mountain forest.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2014-09-14T18:10:05Z (over 9 years ago)
Original score: 4