Designed for Use, 2nd Edition

Sentences Should Have One Obvious Interpretation

Avoid sentences that can be interpreted in two different ways and sentences that lure your readers into an improper understanding when they have read only part of them.

Readers try to make sense of sentences before they reach the period at the end. Some sentences can mislead the reader. These are often called garden-path sentences, from the saying “to be led up the garden path.” The intuitive understanding of such a sentence is misleading; reaching the end of the sentence forces the reader to backtrack, looking for a different interpretation.^[21]

Consider the first few words of this headline:^[22]

“Burger King fries the holy grail...”

Now why would Burger King fry the holy grail? The sentence’s ...