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Avoiding Ambiguity in Your Writing
3
"You see, many hands make light work."
3. Rearrangement. Use the same elements in a different order. Rearrangement usually involves two nouns
and an adjective. The sentence is ambiguous because the adjective could modify one or both of the nouns.
They are chewing tobacco and garlic.
They are chewing garlic and tobacco.
They are garlic and chewing tobacco.
Put simply, ambiguity means “multiple meaning”. A word or passage that can be understood or interpreted in more than one way is ambiguous.
Norman Stageberg in “Ambiguity in College Writing: To a College
Freshman.”
6. Spelling. Homonyms in English are frequently the source for ambiguity in speech. However, spelling will
rarely remove written ambiguity.
The governor went hunting bear last week.
7. Use of Grammatical Signals.
❯ Gender Signals (his, her, its)
The puppy by the girl with the contented look ---> The puppy by the girl with (her/its) contented look
❯ Person-thing Signals (who, which)
The dog of the neighbor that bothered him ---> The dog of the neighbor (who/which) bothered him
❯ Number Signals (was-singular, were-plural)
One of the freshman girls who seemed downcast ---> One of the freshman girls who (was/were)
downcast
❯ Coordination Signals
A car which stood behind the garage that was in need of paint ---> A car which stood behind the
garage (and) which was in need of paint
5. Punctuation. Commas, and other marks of punctuation, can be used to correct written ambiguity.
foreign study programs ---> foreign-study programs
4. Capitalization. Capital letters are sometimes useful to make sentences that would be orally ambiguous,
clear.
You should call your uncle George. ---> You should call your Uncle George.
2. Expansion. Adding a word or two to the sentence can remove ambiguity.
He finished the race last Thursday. --> He finished the race on last Thursday
1. Synonymy. Find a clear synonym to replace the ambiguous word.
The doctor made them well. ---> The doctor made them skillfully.
Stageberg’s Seven Strategies
Norman Stageberg in “Ambiguity in College Writing: To a College Freshman.”
Avoiding Ambiguity
in Your Writing
Prepared by: Sarmiento, Kyle Vienesse E.