A Spanner in My Works!

 

The other day I described myself as a text-processing machine. Well, the sentence below is as much justification as I will ever need for my purpose in the world.

Moving from theory to practice, there has been progression in methods of practical delivery of the medical humanities in the undergraduate curriculum over the years.

I will edit this to make it slightly more graceful (and the problems more obvious), thus:

In the movement from theory to practice, there has been progress in the methods of practical delivery of the medical humanities in the undergraduate curriculum over the years.

Slightly more graceful, I emphasize. But seriously: in that sentence, the main clause is inverted, has a null subject, and is modified by an almost endless string of preposition phrases:

1. in the movement

2. from theory

3. to practice

4. in the methods

5. of practical delivery

6. of the medical humanities

7. in the undergraduate curriculum

8. over the years

!!!

I'll keep refining this sentence. And yes, it's not like I'm digging ditches for a living, I realize. But sentences like the original will keep editors in business for a long, long time.

L