how much space to allocate?

[bosun]

Does ' how much space are you going to allocate in your paper' sound natural?

If you should write a 1500 word essay, how much space are you going to allocate to define ' externalites' for your economic essay? Are you gong to use 10 lines or 1 paragrph to define ' externalities'?

 

[Raymott]

Does ' how much space are you going to allocate in your paper' sound natural?

If you should write a 1500 word essay, how much space are you going to allocate to define ' externalites' for your economics essay? Are you going to use 10 lines or 1 paragraph to define ' externalities'?

Yes, it's OK.

 

[charliedeut]

Yes, it's OK.

Funny, I found it a tad too wordy, and it sounded sort of strange to my ear when read aloud. :-?

 

[emsr2d2]

Remember that we do not put a space after an opening quotation mark. So it should say:

Does 'How much space are you going to allocate ...' sound natural?

 

[Raymott]

Funny, I found it a tad too wordy, and it sounded sort of strange to my ear when read aloud. :-?

Certainly the whole sentence could be improved upon. But I don't think, "How much space are you going to allocate in your paper to defining 'externalites'?" could be said to be unacceptable. I didn't say it was perfect. It's OK.
If you mean the "If you should write a 1500 word essay,..." part, then I agree; it's strange. But that wasn't the question. I don't feel constrained to correct all the errors in a post. Sometimes I do. You can have a go at making a perfect sentence out of it if you want.

 

[charliedeut]

Certainly the whole sentence could be improved upon. But I don't think, "How much space are you going to allocate in your paper to defining 'externalites'?" could be said to be unacceptable. I didn't say it was perfect. It's OK.
If you mean the "If you should write a 1500 word essay,..." part, then I agree; it's strange. But that wasn't the question. I don't feel constrained to correct all the errors in a post. Sometimes I do. You can have a go at making a perfect sentence out of it if you want.

I was not in the least trying to question your opinion; after all, you are a native speaker, while I'm not. I just mentioned that, as it stood, it sounded strage to me, not that it was at all incorrect. Sorry if I gave that impression .

 

[Raymott]

I was not in the least trying to question your opinion; after all, you are a native speaker, while I'm not. I just mentioned that, as it stood, it sounded strage to me, not that it was at all incorrect. Sorry if I gave that impression .

No, you didn't give that impression. I wasn't questioning your opinion either - just explaining why I said it was OK.
I agree that the second sentence as a whole is strange, and I was genuinely inviting you to improve on it.

 

[charliedeut]

Does ' how much space are you going to allocate in your paper' sound natural?

If you should write a 1500 word essay, how much space would you allocate to define 'externalites' for your economics essay? Do you think 10 lines would suffice/be enough to define them?

I feel since the modal "should is used at the beginning, a conditional would fit better in the rest of the text. And since there is, IMO, no possible ambiguity, I would stick to "them" rather than repeat "externalities".

Criticism is welcome ;-)

PS: I omitted "1 paragraph" on purpose. Indeed 10 lines could make a good one, and many have less!

 

[Raymott]

I feel since the modal "should is used at the beginning, a conditional would fit better in the rest of the text. And since there is, IMO, no possible ambiguity, I would stick to "them" rather than repeat "externalities".

Criticism is welcome ;-)

PS: I omitted "1 paragraph" on purpose. Indeed 10 lines could make a good one, and many have less!

I think "should" is wrong. A situation in which you should write a paper wouldn't be common. You usually need to, or have to.
I'd write something like this:
If you had to write a 1500 word economics essay, how much space would you allocate to define 'externalities'? Do you think 10 lines would be enough to define this?

 

[charliedeut]

A situation in which you should write a paper wouldn't be common. You usually need to, or have to.

Too true. Missed that one .