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It is hard to use long noun phrase subject. I hope to make it easy to read.

For example,

The relation between luminance and pupil area under dynamic condition will be computed.

In this case, The relation ~ dynamic condition is my subject but it is too long.

Then, should I use like this?

The relation will be computed between luminance and pupil area under dynamic condition.

It looks 'between' modifies 'computed', not 'the relation'....

I will appreciate if you teach me how to deal with such a case.

Thanks in advance.

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    Sometimes, it's acceptable to use the active voice: "We compute the relationship between..."
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Apr 1, 2015 at 11:17
  • 4
    Apart from the fact that the phrase isn’t very idiomatic (wrong preposition, lacking plural), there’s nothing inherently wrong with your original sentence. Long subjects aren’t a problem, as long as they’re clear and easy to understand. I have no idea what exactly constitutes ‘dynamic conditions’ (whatever those are) for the ‘pupil area’ (whatever that is—do you mean the size of the pupil?), but I assume your readers will know more about this than I do. “The relation(ship) between luminance and pupil size in dynamic conditions will be computed” sounds perfectly fine to me.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Apr 1, 2015 at 11:31
  • (Incidentally, I’m starting to doubt my statement that under is wrong as a preposition here. In sounds more natural and straightforward in my head, but thinking about it, under doesn’t actually sound wrong, either. And a bit of Googling reveals lots of hits for both “in dynamic conditions” and “under dynamic conditions”. So feel free to ignore that bit.)
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Apr 1, 2015 at 11:47
  • Thank you, Andrew Leach and Janus Bahs Jacquet. As you anticipated, it is a sentence for scientific research so it is natural that you can't understand fully without background knowledge. Your advices were helpful. Thank you again :)
    – Kyung Yoo
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 1:38
  • It seems that the relationship between luminance and pupil area under dynamic conditions isn't something you compute, but something you have to discover by experiment. So I would rethink the last verb in your sentence. Maybe "A formula is given for the relation between luminance ..." (or "will be", if you prefer the future tense).
    – Peter Shor
    Commented May 1, 2015 at 15:03

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I don't know if this can be done in your case, but if possible, you may describe or define a long subject in one sentence then use a clear and simple name for the whole subject in following sentences.

"The relationship between X and Y is such and such". We will compute this relationship... "

"We are studying such and such a relation. This relation will be computed..."

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  • Thank you, borbo. It was helpful, although I wish to write it with a single sentence.
    – Kyung Yoo
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 1:41

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