Grammar usage
"I am uncomfortable with the immature structure of the sentence itself. " (Tolley sir)
Can I say, "I am uncomfortable with the immature sentence structure itself. (To avoid prepositional prawl)
sanjay
Expert
1 answer 
I'll let Tolley elaborate on the slight change in meaning.
Sanjay, prepositional phrases are not, by themselves, bad. They serve a very necessary and useful purpose in English grammar. I usually use the term sprawl when a sentence has three, four, and sometimes five prepositional phrases, one strung after another. These sentences are choppy, difficult to read and understand.
Your recent post on time-wasters also points out examples of unnecessary prepositional phrases. I generally encourage choosing the shorter, more direct version if it better conveys the intended meaning. It doesn't always.
To underscore that not all prepositional phrases are bad -- statistical analysis of writing that most would agree is concise and high-quality shows that 7 to 10% of the total word count are prepositions. If the average sentence is between 17 and 23 words (typical for high-quality high school to college level writing), the average sentence still will have 1.5 to 2 prepositions. The lesson: consider prepositions to be a precious resource -- use them wisely.
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edited Aug 31 '12 at 19:32
Jeff Pribyl
Grammarly Fellow
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Ok. Thank you, sir.
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It is sprawl. It is a typo error.
– sanjay – Aug 31 '12 at 18:46 add comment