Dealing with Ambiguity in Writing

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Dealing with Ambiguity in Writing
The aim of this tutorial is to help you recognize
ambiguous writing and learn how to avoid
ambiguity in your own writing.
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Ambiguity in writing can be either intentional or
unintentional. Intentional ambiguity may be used
to mislead a reader or might be necessary due to
the context or subject matter. Unintentional
ambiguity should always be avoided and can be
with care and practice. This chapter focuses on
two major types ambiguity semantical ambiguity
and syntactical ambiguity. Understanding the
differences between these types will help you
identify ambiguity in what others write and to
avoid including unintentional ambiguity in your
own writing.
In the following examples, identify the ambiguity
and decide how the claims can be re-written to
get rid of the ambiguity.
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This morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas.
Who was wearing the pajamas? The hunter or the
elephant?
This is a syntactical ambiguity that can be
cleared up grammatically.
This morning, in my pajamas, I shot an elephant.
Though you could probably tell from context what
the author meant, there is no reason to
unintentionally make such a mistake.
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Our mothers bore us.
Are our mothers really that boring?
This is a semantical ambiguity. The word bore
has more than one meaning and it is not clear in
this case which meaning is intended.
Our mothers gave birth to us.
Unlike the last example where it was fairly clear
what the author meant, this case really was
ambiguous. Our mothers who gave birth to us can
be boring.
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While backpacking in Peru, the Incan
ruins captivated my imagination.
This sentence is syntactically ambiguous. Because
of faulty sentence structure, the passage
misleadingly suggests that the ruins were
backpacking through Peru.
While I was backpacking through Peru, my
imagination was captivated by the Incan ruins.
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Sign in front of a vacant lot Fine for
littering.
Does the lot owner want your trash or not?
This is a semantical ambiguity. The word fine
has multiple meanings.
Fines imposed for littering.
This is the end of this tutorial.