Mekita Rivas, SNR communications associate, publishes a biweekly feature called "Grammar Guru."
Every other week, the Grammar Guru will share writing tips to help make your work as polished as possible. Some of these tips may address common spelling errors, while others will examine the many nuances of the English language.
Grammar Guru Tip #26
Sentence sprawl occurs when a writer strings too many subordinate or coordinate clauses together in one sentence. Subordinate clauses are joined by "which," "that," "who" or "where." Coordinate clauses are joined by "or," "and" or "but."
In short, sentence sprawl means there are too many equally weighted phrases and clauses, which produces tiresome sentences. Sentence sprawl should not be confused with run-on sentences.
Example:
NOT: The meeting had been planned for Monday, October 27, but there were some people who were not going to be available, so they rescheduled it for Thursday, October 30, and then all people would be able to attend.
While there is nothing grammatically incorrect in the sentence above, it is too wordy and does not communicate clearly and concisely.
BUT: The meeting, which had been planned for Monday, October 27, was rescheduled for Thursday so that everyone would be able to attend.
Need some grammar guidance? The UNL Style Guide (http://unlcms.unl.edu/ucomm/styleguide/) is a great resource for all university employees. If you have writing questions that the style guide doesn't answer, feel free to email the Grammar Guru at mrivas@unl.edu.