by Alexis Ravey
Though marketing best practices may bend editorial rules, copy should still be correctly written to promote readability through clarity, conciseness and consistency. Readers will understand your message a lot more clearly without stumbling on sentences that don’t read quite right. Above all, you want readers to understand what you’re saying!
Here are five top jumbles that could cause reader stumbles:
1. Non-parallel structure: Start each item in a series with the same part of speech and word form to indicate equal importance. Read more
Example
Incorrect: He likes mowing the lawn, to play with the kids and watching television.
Correct: He likes to mow the lawn, play with the kids and watch television.
2. Incomplete/Inconsistent bullets: Introduce a bulleted list. Then, start each bullet with the same part of speech and complete the introduction—to tie the bullets together as a list.
3. Dangling modifiers: In a clause that modifies the rest of a sentence, ensure any action is performed by the subject that immediately follows the clause. Otherwise, the modifying clause is dangling. Read more
Example
Incorrect: Driving on the left side of the road, the car unexpectedly turned right. (The car isn’t driving.)
Correct: Driving on the left side of the road, the woman unexpectedly turned right. (The woman is driving the car.)
4. Noun strings: In a long string of nouns, change nouns to verbs whenever possible to support active voice. Read more on active vs. passive voice
Example
Awkward: This report explains our investment growth stimulation projects.
Preferred: This report explains our projects to stimulate investment growth.
5. Nominalizations: Change nouns to verbs whenever possible to support active voice. Read more
Example
Awkward: The implementation of the plan was successful.
Preferred: We implemented the plan successfully.