In English, it is very common to use one noun to describe another noun, for example heart disease (a two-noun cluster). This phrase has the same meaning as cardiac disease (an adjective and a noun), and the two phrases can be used interchangeably. Two-noun clusters are acceptable and usually cause no problem for the reader. However, if three or more nouns are used in one cluster, to the point where there is a long string of nouns and adjectives modifying one another, problems arise. First of all, the reader easily gets lost before he reaches the main noun. Note the following example of poor writing that was actually published.

Five two week old single comb white leghorn specific pathogen free chickens were inoculated with approximately 105 tissue culture infected doses of duck adenovirus.

If you cannot understand this, don't feel bad because I can't either. The noun 'chickens' has 11 words describing it! The sentence is very difficult to understand because the reader is unsure which nouns are substantive and which are modifiers.

Many scientific writers make this error because they are trying very hard to be brief. In my first set of tips, I instructed that brevity should be a goal in scientific writing. However, clarity is always more important than brevity. The following example is obviously brief, however it is not clear and could be interpreted in many different ways. Even though it is not necessarily from a scientific report, similar occurrences can be found in literature from every academic field.

This phrase could have at least five different meanings:

1. samples of aged meat fed to dogs
2. samples of aged meat from the bodies of dogs
3. aged samples of meat from the bodies of dogs
4. aged samples of meat fed to dogs
5. samples of meat from the bodies of aged dogs

When you edit your own article (which you should do BEFORE you send it to E-World Editing or any native-speaking editor), try to circle every group of more than two nouns.Your goal is to reduce these strings to simple pairs. There is a saying in English that is useful to remember; "Two is company, three is a crowd." While this phrase usually refers to a couple who wants to be alone, it also applies to this method. The following are some examples of phrases that contain a string of nouns or adjectives, and beside them are clearer revisions.

A system necessitated automated motor starting circuit		An automated motor-starting circuit required by the system
A 4 month secretory cell produced mucosal accumulation history		A 4-month history of accumulation of mucosa produced by secretory cells
The negative penicillin skin test result group		The group with negative results on the penicillin skin test
Blue absorbing pigment spectral curve		Spectral curve for blue-absorbing pigment
Climate controlled gene cluster phenotype variation		Climatically controlled variation in gene-cluster phenotype
Two dimensional real time ultrasonographic blood flow detection techniques		Ultrasonography techniques that detect blood flow in two-dimensional real time
A calibrated transit time ultrasonic blood flow probe cable end		The cable end from an ultrasonic blood-flow probe calibrated to measure transit time ultrasonically

A. Remove the ambiguity from the strings of nouns and adjectives listed below. You can rewrite each more than once to express different meanings.

• Tips Introduction
• Tips I - General Tips
• Tips II - Proper Use of Verb Tense
• Tips III - Taking Apart Long Strings of Nouns and Adjectives
• Tips IV - Commonly Misused Words (1)
• Tips V - Tables and Figures
• Tips VI - Abbreviations, Acronyms, Numbers