Noun Strings

A long string of nouns – one noun after the other – makes for difficult reading. This includes nouns that are bing used as adjectives. This happens frequently in cases where technical jargon is used. Unnecessary nouns can be removed, or perhaps some of the nouns can be changed to verbs or adjectives.

The company is considering branching into electromagnetic radiation assistive astronomical technology.

Um… what? Only someone who is in this field would be able to understand this noun string without re-reading the sentence several times.

The company is considering branching into an astronomical technology which would aid in the study of electromagnetic radiation.

This is better; the sentence uses the same number of nouns, but the noun string has been split up so the reader can easily process the information.

The city could certainly use a fleet of public operation transportation vehicles.

The city could certainly use a fleet for public transport.

Even turning one noun into a verb (transportation/transport) or turning one noun into a clear adjective (public operation/public) makes this sentence a little simpler to understand. Notice, also, that we have broken up the nouns to make the sentence clearer.