Long sentences can easily go out of control

Scholastic attainments are in main good ideas presented in good and clear writings.





If we want to write long sentences, we have to be careful to be able to control their flows effectively so as to avoid grammatical errors. Readers will then get their intended meanings easily.

The complaints we have received from our teachers is that much of the paperwork is last minute or done on an ad-hoc basis.

The above sentence highlighted in bold is taken from an item of news (about the call, among other things, for teachers' workload to be reduced) published by a popular national English daily.

If we fail to know what is wrong with the sentence in question, we need to break it down. The words - we have received from our teachers - are an enlargement of the noun 'complaints' in the form of an adjective clause. If we take away this adjective clause, the sentence will become "The complaints is that much of the paperwork is last minute or done on an ad-hoc basis." Now, everybody can notice the mistake of noun-verb disagreement.

Therefore, the sentence should have been "The complaints we have received from our teachers are that much of the paperwork is last minute or done on an ad-hoc basis."

Alternatively, the sentence can be broken up into two shorter sentences as "The complaints are that much of the paperwork is last minute or done on an ad-hoc basis. We have received these complaints from our teachers."

I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing.
-- Stendhal