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In the sentence

This talk focuses on an evaluation of....

it somehow feels way more natural to omit the article:

This talk focuses on evaluation of....

Or at least change the sentence like so:

The focus of this talk is an evaluation of....

Is my gut feeling correct? If so, why?

1 Answer 1

3

The first sentence

This talk focuses on an evaluation of....

means the talk is about a particular evaluation that has been made.

The second sentence

This talk focuses on evaluation of....

means the talk is about the process of evaluating....

The third sentence

The focus of this talk is an evaluation of....

means that the talk itself is making an evaluation of something.

and so I would say both the second and third sentences change the original meaning.

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  • I agree with this. Although I would add that the second sentence doesn't sound normal to me. If dropping the article, I would make another change: This talk focuses on evaluating [something]. Jan 31, 2019 at 7:18

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