Cut Prepositional Phrase Chains to Lower Grade Level
Stacked 'of the' and 'in the' phrases add words without meaning and raise grade level. Here is how to find and cut them, with before and after scores.
Prepositional phrases readability is a sentence-level problem: stacks of prepositional phrases, such as "of the" and "in the" chains, add words to a sentence without adding meaning, which raises its grade level. Removing the stack, while keeping the meaning, usually lowers the score.
Most readability advice targets sentence length or passive voice. Prepositional chains get less attention, but they're one of the most reliable edits for lowering a Flesch-Kincaid grade. This tutorial shows how the formula responds to them, how to find them, and how to rewrite them with recalculated scores so you can verify each change yourself.
I ran every example below through the Flesch-Kincaid formula by hand, counting words and syllables for each sentence. Where a cut lowered the score, I show it. I also show one cut that raised it, because the formula doesn't reward removal blindly.
Why Prepositional Chains Inflate Flesch-Kincaid Scores
The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula is:
Grade = 0.39 × (words ÷ sentences) + 11.8 × (syllables ÷ words) − 15.59
The formula never identifies a preposition. It counts words, sentences, and syllables. A prepositional chain affects the score through those counts, in two ways.
First, it adds words to the sentence. Every phrase is at least two words long ("of the," "in the"), so a chain of three or four phrases can add 6 to 10 words to a sentence that needed only a few. Because the first term is words per sentence, that increase pushes the grade up directly.
Second, it changes the syllable ratio. Prepositions and articles are almost always one syllable, which pulls the average syllables-per-word down. That sounds helpful, but chains usually bring in polysyllabic nouns ("implementation," "evaluation," "development") that push the ratio up. The net effect depends on what you remove and what remains, which is why you need to recalculate after each edit.
Finding the Chains: A Three-Preposition Test
Stacked prepositional phrases are easy to miss while drafting because each phrase looks grammatical on its own. A practical test: scan each sentence for three or more prepositions in a row, each attached to the noun before it. "The results of the survey in the northern region of the state" has three prepositions and a noun chain, so it's a candidate.
Flag any sentence with three or more prepositions, then count the words that exist only to connect nouns. If more than a third of the sentence is connective tissue, the chain is probably the reason the sentence reads heavy.
Two cautions. Not every preposition is removable: "across the river" carries a spatial meaning that "river" alone cannot. And prepositions that are part of a fixed verb (such as "depend on" or "consist of") aren't part of a chain; leave them alone.
The 'Of the' Stack: Nominalizations Plus Prepositions
The most common chain pairs a nominalization (a verb turned into a noun) with "of the." "The development of a solution for the problem of data loss was delayed" stacks three "of/for" phrases onto the noun "development." Each "of" introduces a new phrase, and the reader has to hold the subject in memory until the verb arrives at the end.
This is where prepositional phrases vs nominalization matters. The two problems usually appear together, and fixing one often fixes the other. Converting "the development of a solution" back to the verb "solving" removes two prepositions and a noun in a single edit. If you only cut prepositions and leave the nominalization in place, you often end up with an awkward sentence like "the development solution data loss," which is worse. Fix the verb first, then check whether any prepositions remain.
Writers who draft in formal registers, such as academic or policy writing, usually produce the densest "of the" stacks. Those are also the writers who most benefit from a deliberate pass on them.
Before-and-After Rewrites With Recalculated Grade Levels
Here are three rewrites with word counts, syllable counts, and recalculated grades, so you can see the mechanism at work.
Example 1: Cutting a phrase chain.
- Original: "The results of the survey in the northern region of the state were unexpected." Words: 14. Syllables: 21. Grade: 7.6.
- Revised: "The survey results from the north were unexpected." Words: 8. Syllables: 13. Grade: 6.7.
The cut removed six words and one syllable-heavy phrase, dropping words per sentence from 14 to 8. The phrase "from the north" keeps the meaning, and the grade falls nearly a full level.
Example 2: Nominalization plus stacked "of" phrases.
- Original: "The development of a solution for the problem of data loss was delayed." Words: 13. Syllables: 21. Grade: 8.5.
- Revised: "The team delayed solving the data loss problem." Words: 8. Syllables: 12. Grade: 5.2.
This is the largest drop in the set. The rewrite changes the sentence's subject and verb structure, not just its prepositions, which is why the score moves so far.
Example 3: A cut that raises the score.
- Original: "The team reviewed the status of the project in the context of the budget." Words: 14. Syllables: 19. Grade: 5.9.
- Revised: "The team reviewed project status against the budget." Words: 8. Syllables: 13. Grade: 6.7.
The sentence got shorter, yet the grade went up. Removing "of the" and "in the" stripped out short one-syllable words, and "against" (two syllables) became a larger share of what remained. The syllables-per-word ratio rose from about 1.36 to 1.63. The lesson: a cut is an improvement only if the recalculated grade drops. The formula is blind to your intent, so the score check is not optional.
Which Prepositions to Keep When the Phrase Carries Meaning
Some prepositions do real work. "Across" in "the bridge across the river" describes a path. "Among" in "one of three options" signals a set. Removing those changes what the sentence says, and no readability gain justifies that.
A useful rule: keep a preposition if removing it forces the reader to guess the relationship between two nouns. "Survey results from the north" is clear because "from" names the origin. "Survey north results" is not. When the relationship is obvious from context, cut it. When it isn't, keep the phrase and fix something else, such as the sentence's length or verb choice.
Also watch for prepositions that carry tone. "Under review" reads more formally than "being reviewed," and some legal and clinical writing relies on that register. Cut for readability, but don't flatten a register your audience expects.
Stacking in Technical and Legal Prose
Technical and legal documents tend to stack prepositions because they're trying to be precise, with each phrase narrowing a term. "The implementation of the evaluation guidelines for the assessment of outcomes in clinical settings" is accurate, but it asks the reader to track four "of/for/in" phrases before reaching the verb.
Healthcare communicators and compliance writers often find the fix is structural rather than word-level. Break the sentence at the first natural boundary, then state the action plainly: "Staff implemented the evaluation guidelines for clinical settings. The guidelines cover outcome assessment." You may lose a small amount of compression, but the reader gets a subject, a verb, and an object early, and the grade drops accordingly.
Keep the precision by moving qualifiers to the end of the sentence or to a separate sentence. Precision survives the rewrite; the stack does not.
Checking Your Edits and Keeping Your Voice
Recalculate after every change. Paste the original and the revision into a Flesch-Kincaid calculator for testing your edits and compare scores. Calculators differ slightly in syllable counting, so compare the same tool's before and after numbers rather than mixing tools. If your syllable counts look off, check syllable counting errors that wreck your readability score before trusting the result.
Also check the paragraph, not just the sentence. A sentence can pass the formula and still feel choppy if you cut every connector. Read the revised paragraph aloud and confirm the logic still flows. For broader sentence-level tactics, see how to lower sentence length without losing voice, and for a full revision workflow, practical steps to improve your readability score covers the rest.
Target grade also matters. If you're aiming for general public readers, a sixth-grade target is different from an eighth-grade one; writing for sixth-grade vs eighth-grade reading level explains how to choose. Don't chase a number at the cost of the reader's understanding, and don't stop cutting when a number looks good if the sentences still read as heavy.
Frequently asked questions
What are prepositional phrase chains?
Prepositional phrase chains are two or more prepositional phrases stacked on the same noun, as in "the results of the survey in the northern region of the state." Each phrase hangs on the one before it, so readers hold a list of relationships before reaching the main verb.
Does Flesch-Kincaid count prepositions directly?
No. Flesch-Kincaid counts only words, sentences and syllables, with no category for prepositions. Prepositions change the score indirectly: they add words per sentence and are usually one syllable, which shifts the syllables-per-word average. Cutting them can lower or raise the grade, so recalculate after each edit.
How many prepositions in a row is too many?
Three or more prepositions in one sentence, each attached to the noun before it, usually signal a chain worth reviewing. Two prepositional phrases are common and rarely a problem. The real test: if the reader must track several relationships before reaching the verb, restructure the sentence.
Will removing "of the" always lower my grade level?
No. Cutting "of the" lowers words per sentence, but those are one-syllable words, so the syllables-per-word average can rise. In this article's example, cutting "of the" and "in the" from a 14-word sentence raised its grade from 5.9 to 6.7. Always recalculate.
Should I always cut prepositional phrases to improve readability?
No. Cut a phrase when the relationship between nouns stays clear without it, or a shorter structure says the same thing. Keep prepositions that express location, direction, membership or origin when removing them would make the meaning ambiguous. Clear communication matters more than the score.
How do I tell a nominalization from a plain noun?
A nominalization is a noun made from a verb or adjective, often ending in -tion, -ment, -ance or -ity, like "implementation" or "assessment." These nouns usually need prepositional phrases ("the assessment of outcomes"). When one is followed by two or more "of" or "for" phrases, use the verb instead.
Bottom Line
Stacked prepositional phrases raise Flesch-Kincaid grade levels by adding words per sentence and by introducing longer nouns that change the syllable ratio. Finding them takes a simple test: flag any sentence with three or more prepositions attached to the noun before each. Fix nominalizations first, because the verb conversion often removes several prepositions at once. Keep prepositions that carry meaning, and recalculate after every edit, since some cuts lower the score and others raise it. In the examples here, the best cuts dropped the grade by about one to three levels, and the one counterexample showed why the score check is essential. Make the change, verify the number, and then read the paragraph aloud to confirm it still sounds like you.