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Researchers' communities think bananas have a lack of reliability.

How should I say this?

  1. There was a lack of reliability in the bananas, from the researchers' communities.
  2. There was a lack of reliability of the bananas, in the researchers' communities.

Or none of the above?

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Are bananas unreliable test subjects in an experiment or is their availability unreliable? – Tungsten Feb 28 '11 at 6:07
Bananas are unreliable test subjects. – John Assymptoth Feb 28 '11 at 12:38

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote

Between those two choices I would have to go with "of", as reliability is a concept possessed by the banana as a whole rather than an ingredient contained by the banana.

However, the sentence would benefit greatly from re-wording to eliminate the passive voice and its unnecessarily complex structure:

The bananas were unreliable in the researchers' communities.

The researchers' communities felt that the bananas could not be relied upon.

The bananas had no reliability as far as the researchers' communities were concerned.

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The first option sounds a bit strange: "The bananas were unreliable in the researchers' communities." Are you sure it is correct? – John Assymptoth Feb 27 '11 at 18:54
It would probably be better put as "The bananas in the researchers' communities were unreliable." – Hellion Feb 28 '11 at 0:25
+1, but you failed to motivate your choosing "bananas" as from the OP's first example over "babanas" from the second. – Cerberus Feb 28 '11 at 3:30
I thought about putting in "Where the heck are our babanas?!" was a constant refrain from the research community, but ultimately decided against it. – Hellion Feb 28 '11 at 3:34

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