A-manual-for-writers-of-research-papers-theses-and-dissertations

principal demonstrates that she is committed to it and teachers cooperate to set reasonable goals.In (4a), the whole subject is fourteen words long, and its simple subject is an abstraction—adoption. In (4b), the clearer version, the whole subject of every verb is short, and eachsimple subject is relatively concrete: school system, each principal, she, teachers. Moreover,each of those subjects performs the action in its verb: system will adopt, principaldemonstrates, she is committed, teachers cooperate.The principle is this: readers tend to judge a sentence to be readable when the subject of itsverb names the main character in a few concrete words, ideally a character that is also the“doer” of the action expressed by the verb that follows.But there's a complication: you can often tell clear stories about abstract characters:5. No skill is more valued in the professional world than problem solving. The ability to solve problems quicklyrequires us to frame situations in different ways and to find more than one solution. In fact, effective problemsolving may define general intelligence.Few readers have trouble with those abstract subjects, because they're short and familiar: noskill, the ability to solve problems quickly, and effective problem solving. What gives readerstrouble is an abstract subject that is long and unfamiliar.To fix sentences with long, abstract subjects, revise in three steps:Identify the main character in the sentence.Find its key action, and if it is buried in an abstract noun, make it a verb.Make the main character the subject of that new verb.For example, compare (6a) and (6b) (actions are boldfaced; verbs are capitalized):6a. Without a means for analyzing interactions between social class and education in regard to the creation ofmore job opportunities, success in understanding economic mobility WILL REMAIN limited.6b. Economists do not entirely UNDERSTAND economic mobility, because they cannot ANALYZE howsocial class and education INTERACT to CREATE more job opportunities.In both sentences, the main character is economists, but in (6a), that character isn't the subjectof any verb; in fact, it's not in the sentence at all: we must infer it from actions buried innouns: analyzing and understanding (what economists do). We revise (6a) into (6b) bymaking the main characters, economists, social class, and education, subjects of the explicitverbs understand, analyze, interact, and create.Readers want subjects to name the main characters in your story, ideally flesh-and-bloodcharacters, and specific verbs to name their key actions.11.1.3 Avoid Interrupting Subjects and Verbs with More than a Word or TwoOnce past a short subject, readers want to get to a verb quickly, so avoid splitting a verb fromwww.itpub.net