TARGETS FOR REVISING
Rationale
Easy to Spot
Harder to Spot
Simple Sentence Syndrome
The "Harder to Spot" items are more difficult to spot than those on the "Easy to Spot" list.

However, both Passive Verbs and Nominalized Verbs are often part of the problem when sentences are unnecessarily complicated or round-about.

In particular, whenever you find yourself struggling to write or revise a sentence that you just can't get to work right, try asking yourself the following question: "Who is doing what to (or for) whom?". If you write the answer to that question and then look again at the sentence that you couldn't get to work right, you will find, in many cases, that a passive or nominalized verb (or both) was part of the problem.