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Academic Writing
So, this is my first uni assignment and I was just wondering if this is good English.
".. The number of times she interrupted me was astonishing. Having someone interrupt you was annoying enough, but having someone assume what you were to say was irritating, rude and unbearable."
My question is, does ".. what you WERE TO SAY" make sense? Is that good English? Does it even make sense? It sounds academic to me, but it doesn't sound so right. So, I just wanted to run it past this family! :)
Thank you in advance!
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The first statement is personal. She interrupted "me". The second statement is impersonal "interrupting you is annoying"
"Having someone interrupt me was" would be both subject agreement in your thoughts and past tense agreement with "interrupted" and "was"
This also fits in well with "having someone assume they knew what you were going to say" which is a good correction to what you actually asked.
It sounds to me as if this is part of the story. So you might want to consider making the entire thing about you and her, and not the audience and someone else.
So. "Having someone interrupt me was annoying enough, but having her assume she knew what I was going to say was irritating, rude, and unbearable.
Last, if you would like to emphasize the experience with your personal feelings you can insert an adverb to alter assume.
Lets use "Condescendingly"
So as I would restructure that entire thing, "Having someone interrupt me was annoying enough, but having her condescendingly assume she knew what I was going to say was irritating, rude, and unbearable"
:Edit:
Beaten like an inflatable clown at the local kiddie pool.
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"...what you were going to say"
It sounds academic without the 'going' but it's just pretentious and needlessly unclear language.
We often think confusing shit sounds smart - but it’s just confusing.
However, the real problem with your sentence is that you are actually missing other words as well. You are saying:
“… having someone assume what you were going to say was irritating, rude and unbearable.”
What you mean is:
"… having someone assume they knew what you were going to say was irritating, rude and unbearable."
Also you might, depending on the whole context of this, want to change your tense. She interrupted in the past, but having someone interrupt you IS annoying, regardless of when it takes place.
The sentence makes the most sense when it reads:
".. The number of times she interrupted me was astonishing. Having someone interrupt you is annoying enough, but having someone assume they know what you are going to say is irritating, rude and unbearable."
Always work on clarity first - flowery and ‘academic sounding’ second.
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