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I am reading a book (A Promised Land) and there is a sentence that I don't understand:

I still like writing things out in longhand, finding that a computer gives even my roughest drafts too smooth a gloss and lends half-baked thoughts the mask of tidiness.

The problem is this part: "my roughest drafts too smooth a gloss" because when I read it like this - my roughest drafts / too smooth / a gloss - I don't understand why there is an 'a' before 'gloss'. If 'smooth' is used as an adjective here, then why does the next part start with 'a gloss'?

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    Welcome to ELU. A small number of adjective phrases can occur before the indefinite article. In your example, the degree modifier "too" introduces the AdjP "too smooth", where it functions as pre-head modifier in external position., before "a". It's equivalent to "a gloss that is too smooth". Other similar examples include "It was as fine a performance as I've ever seen" / "How serious a problem is it?"
    – BillJ
    Commented Feb 1 at 10:37
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    "a book" please edit your question and provide its title.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Feb 1 at 10:54
  • @Mari-LouA It is a very common construction ( "too {adjective} a {noun}") so we don't really need to know the title.
    – TimR
    Commented Feb 1 at 11:24
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    Is this too basic a question?
    – DjinTonic
    Commented Feb 1 at 11:28
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    @Mari-LouA: The book title was actually in there, just invisible due to the peculiarities of Markdown. I've made it visible now...
    – psmears
    Commented Feb 1 at 11:44

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