How to word this sentence?

[moementum7]

"It's incoherent, stream of consciousness rot."

The content is complaining about anothers style of writing.

I would have thought it made more sense to say...
"It's an incoherent, stream of consciousness rot"

I'm not a major in english so I could be wrong, but have asked those nearby and agree the latter sounds correct.

Figured this would be the place to pose such a question...thanks.

[PsychoticEpisode]

Perhaps the word 'a' before 'stream'.

It's incoherent, a stream of consciousness rot.

[moementum7]

Makes sense, thanks.

[cosmictraveler]

"It's an incoherent stream of consciousness rot."

[mathman]

The original statement is a condensation of two statements.

It's incoherent. It's stream of consciousness rot.

[draqon]

In the statement "It's incoherent" mathman....how is that a sentence?

[Fraggle Rocker]

"It's incoherent, stream of consciousness rot." The content is complaining about another's style of writing. I would have thought it made more sense to say...
"It's an incoherent, stream of consciousness rot." I'm not a major in English so I could be wrong, but have asked those nearby and agree the latter sounds correct. Figured this would be the place to pose such a question...thanks.Stream of consciousness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_consciousness_(narrative_mode)) is a literary style. The phrase was borrowed from psychology. As Wikipedia says:Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative (and at times--dissociative) leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing a character's fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings.Notice in this quote that when a phrase is used as an adjective, it's common to link the component words with hyphens. That way readers who aren't familiar with the phrase will, at least, be able to parse the sentence even if they don't understand it.

The hyphens aren't mandatory, but omit them at your peril. Most people don't bother to write "a top-notch presentation" or "first-class postage," but when the phrase stretches to three words, we generally do not try to get away with "an over the top performance" or "a down in the dumps attitude."

The writer of that post was not only criticizing the member in question, he was also telling us how he feels about the "stream of consciousness" writing style. (In a case like this I can use quotes instead of hyphens to highlight a phrase being studied.) James Joyce and T. S. Eliot are two of the most acclaimed English-language writers (there, I used a hyphen again) and they were pioneers of that style. So apparently our grumpy member is completely out of step with academia on that point.

Rot, of course, is a commodity noun. (I don't know the technical term, but that's what I call 'em.) Like air, fun, gasoline and broccoli, rot never takes an indefinite article, no matter how much or how little of it there is, or even if it's piled in discrete lumps.

So, it's okay to say "It's rot," or "It's incoherent rot," or "It's incoherent, stream-of-consciousness rot." He took a chance in leaving out the hyphens. I didn't even notice.

[mathman]

In the statement "It's incoherent" mathman....how is that a sentence?

I don't see why not! "The sky is blue." is a sentence. "It is blue." is a sentence. "It's blue." is a sentence.

[PsychoticEpisode]

"Go" is a sentence.

[draqon]

"Go" is a sentence.

no its not.

[Fraggle Rocker]

Originally Posted by PsychoticEpisode "Go" is a sentence.Originally Posted by draqon No its not.Yes it is. It's an imperative statement. You're telling someone to go. Of course if it were written outside of a quotation it would have to have a period, but within quote marks you either use a comma or nothing. In this case it's better to use no punctuation mark.

[tim840]

I would write it as, "It's incoherent, stream-of-consciousness rot." All I would do is add the hyphens, that's all. It makes perfect grammatical sense, just so long as everybody is aware that "stream-of-consioucness" is actually an adjectiv(ous?) phrase.

That brings up a question I've had: what is the modificatory form of the word "adjective?"

[Fraggle Rocker]

That brings up a question I've had: what is the modificatory form of the word "adjective?""Adjectival."

I like your word "modificatory." "Modificative" also exists. Working from other verbs ending in -fy, it could just as easily have been modific (specify), modificent (magnify), modifactory (satisfy), modeous (beautify), modible (terrify), or modificant (signify). :)

[tim840]

i wasnt sure what the adjectival (:)) form of modify was, so I guessed.