Another form of jargon found in technical and scientific documents involves stringing adjectives and nouns together (i.e., the event list buffer overflow error or the predicted ambient total suspended particulate concentrations). These noun strings are a useful aspect of technical language, providing a group of experts with short expressions for complex ideas. Noun strings become a problem, however, for readers who are not familiar with the concepts being discussed. When nouns are used to modify other nouns, readers have difficulty determining the logical relationships among the words in the string; consequently, readers may interpret an expression in ways the writer did not intend. The following diagram illustrates the pattern for lengthy noun strings.
Some Pointers
Break up noun strings with prepositional phrases.
If possible, turn some nouns into verbs.
Use hyphens to indicate closely related words.
Use acronyms when feasible.
Eliminate words that are not needed in the noun string.
Three nouns in a string is hard to understand; four or more nouns in a string is excessive.