Insert

Question

He described this state (the author's description is not complete since there seemed to be no good reason except interest for making full notations of his description) of Deep Reflection as one marked by physical relaxation with bowed head and closed eyes, a profound progressive psychological withdrawal from externalities but without any actual loss of physical realities nor any amnesias or loss of orientation, a "setting aside" of everything not pertinent, and then a state of complete mental absorption in matters of interest to him.

Hello,

When I read such a long sentence in blue as an insert, I feel my train of thought is being halted all of a sudden, and I distract and lose my orientation. I will have to read again to find out the meaning and the structure of the whole sentence.

I'm curious whether or not native speakers would have such a similar feeling. Do you think such a writing style is common in English?

Thanks!

Clive · Accepted Answer

I'm curious whether or not native speakers would have such a similar feeling. Yes, I have the same opinion as you. The non-blue part is not well written either, in my opinion.

Do you think such a writing style is common in English? It's not unusual, and very often involves a lot of dashes as well as parentheses. It's like the writer starts to write without having first tried to plan his sentence.

There's plenty of poor writing in English. Is this also true of writing in your native language?

GPY · Answer

For me, it's offputting especially because the long parenthetical remark breaks the phrase "state of Deep Reflection". I don't think this is very good style.

Insert

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions