First impression and how effective it can be plays an important role in communication

[Freeguy]

[FONT=&quot]First impression and how effective it can be plays an important role in communication.
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It's a sentence from a mock exam held in Iran. To me, the sentence is not well written. Here's my revision:
A first impression (or First impressions) and how effective it can be play an important role in communication.

Well, It's a compound (plural) subject, consisting of two distinct things, the impression and how it is received. So the verb should be plural.

One of my colleagues, however, disagrees that a plural "play" is required here. This is because the conjunct is somewhat lopsided. He says the sentence is about an impression and one of its characteristics.

What do you think?



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[GoesStation]

Re: subject-verb agreement

We normally talk about first impressions.

 

[Rover_KE]

I have changed your thread title.

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'

 

[jutfrank]

1) There's nothing wrong with using First impression as an uncountable noun like this, although the plural form is fine too.

2) The part of the sentence reading and how effective it can be is wrong and doesn't belong in the sentence as subject to the verb play. It does not make sense to say that how effective something can be can play a role in anything. That is, potential effectiveness cannot play a role in communication—it's first impression that plays a role.