A major bank distributed a document titled "Government Securities Dealership Customer Account Information Form."

A newspaper ran this headline: "England side captain selection difficulty rumor denial confirmation not forthcoming."

Another newspaper referred to the "National Highway Traffic Safety Administration automobile seat belt interlock rule."

Forget about "interlock"; it's noun gridlock!

Lately, writers both amateur and professional have been clogging their sentences with nouns. Such "noun clots," like clusters of slow-moving cars in the left lane, impede the highway of meaning.

Journalists are especially prone to cramming too many nouns into shorthand designations. Instead of using adjectives, possessives and prepositional phrases to describe nouns, they use other nouns instead: "health care reform proposal deadlines," "Connecticut casino gambling regulations," "contemporary Chinese language film library," "the 25 percent tariff surcharge bill," "communication facilitation skills development intervention."

Other forms of noun clot aren't as excessive, but they're equally annoying. Assuming that two or three nouns always sound more impressive than one, TV weather forecasters, for instance, refer to "rain shower activity," "thunderstorm threat situations" and "icing problem areas."

But how can we eliminate such noun clots in our own writing? Often a prepositional phrase, an apostrophe or an adjective will do the trick.

The phrase "a West End neighborhood health-care center," for instance, could be unclogged and clarified by using a prepositional phrase ("a health-care center in the West End neighborhood") or by using a possessive ("a West End neighborhood's health-care center").

Now see whether you can Roto-Rooter these noun clogs:

1. Myra greeted the 14-year-old spelling bee winner. 2. Henry faulted her environment and agriculture policies. 3. George skied down the snow-covered northern Vermont mountain. 4. Mandy serves on the New York City tourism task force. 5. Pete resigned for financial impropriety reasons. 6. Sally criticized the city shortage of low-cost elderly housing.

Possible corrections:

1. the 14-year-old winner of the spelling bee 2. environmental and agricultural policies 3. the snow-covered mountain in northern Vermont 4. New York City's tourism task force 5. for reasons of financial impropriety 6. city's shortage of low-cost housing for the elderly

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Connecticut, invites your language sightings. His book, "Mark My Words," is available for $9.99 on Amazon.com. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via email to WordGuy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, California, 90254.

Photo credit: Brett Jordan at Unsplash