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 What to do about noun clusters

A personal frustration of mine is when I see a cluster of nouns sitting together in a sentence. I usually see these in highly technical emails, but not exclusively. Here is a particularly bad ex...

3 answers  ·  posted 14y ago by Garrett Bluma‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T01:10:08Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/1330
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Garrett Bluma‭ · 2019-12-08T01:10:08Z (almost 5 years ago)
A personal frustration of mine is when I see a cluster of nouns sitting together in a sentence. I usually see these in highly technical emails, but not exclusively.

Here is a particularly bad example I received this morning:

> The Web Product Provider search print Individual Provider Map does not print the listing originally found [...]

What are some good strategies for breaking up these nouns while still keeping the language specific and concise?

**Edit:** I should add a little context here as well. This statement isn't supposed to cover a complex topic. It's nothing more complicated than the following:

1. User enters a search term
2. User clicks map button on the list of results
3. User prints the list of results

The issue I am trying to tackle is that the user who experienced this problem needs to report enough specifics to be complete, but at the same time, do so in a manner that is easily parsed. There is a trend of using clusters of nouns instead of simple English.

(P.S. I'm asking this so that I can become a better writer, not as ammunition — just in case you were thinking it.)

**Edit #2** : I thought of a few more examples that might paint a better picture of the problem.

> 1. The operations review evaluation task force is responsible for this task.
> 
> 2. He doesn't know how to read the aperture adjustment calibration manual.
> 
> 3. She started the 12-week half-marathon training regimen for beginners.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2011-02-04T16:55:26Z (almost 14 years ago)
Original score: 3