Level 3 — Intermediate · Cohesion & Reference in Writing
Task 22: Building a Dense Noun Phrase
Compress three plain sentences into one professional sentence built around 'the extent to which,' 'the ability of X to Y,' or 'the development of' — the exact patterns Lesson 22 taught you to decode, now built from scratch.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this task, you should be able to:
- Compress a simple idea into a nominalization built around a head noun like ability, extent, or development
- Attach an of-phrase and a to-infinitive to that head noun correctly, in the right order
- Produce one professional sentence that reads naturally, not like three sentences glued together
Introduction
Lesson 22 taught you to decode dense phrases like the ability of employees to adapt by finding the head noun first. This task runs the process backward: you start with a plain idea and build the dense phrase yourself — exactly the skill a professional email, report, or CV needs when three short sentences would read as amateur where one compressed sentence reads as confident and precise.
The Rule, for Writing
Core Concept
Pick a head noun that names the idea (ability, extent, development, tendency, failure), attach of + who/what to it, then to + verb to name the action. The ability of the new system to process large orders quickly compresses three separate facts — there's a new system, it processes large orders, and it does so quickly — into one noun phrase built around a single head.
Your Turn
Your Turn
Here are three plain sentences: The port installed a new scanning system. The system checks containers faster than before. This has reduced how long trucks wait at the gate. Combine all three ideas into ONE professional sentence, using at least one pattern from Lesson 22 (such as "the ability of X to Y," "the development of X," or "X has reduced the extent to which Y").
Vocabulary in Context
reduceverbneutral
to make something smaller in amount or degree (কমানো)
Often with reduce costs, reduce risk, significantly reduce
“A second gate lane reduced waiting time by half.”
compressverbformal
to fit a larger amount of meaning into fewer words (সংকুচিত করা)
Often with compress a sentence, compress the schedule, heavily compress
“Writers compress long explanations into a single precise sentence.”
Model Answer
Show a model answer
The port's new scanning system has reduced the extent to which trucks wait at the gate by processing containers faster than before. (Equally valid: "The ability of the new scanning system to process containers faster than before has significantly reduced truck waiting times at the gate.")
Self-Check
Self-Check
- Did you find one head noun and build the sentence around it, rather than joining three sentences with "and"?
- Does your of-phrase and to-phrase (if used) attach in the right order, exactly as Lesson 22 modelled?
- Does the sentence sound like natural professional English when read aloud, not like a translated pattern?
- Did every idea from the original three sentences survive the compression?
Next: Writing 23 — Threading One Idea Through a Paragraph: writing four connected sentences about one topic without repeating the same noun twice.