4

I updated a User Guide, and according to my company's processes I have to send the document with tracked changes to our operations. So I wrote this email:

Dear operations,

Please take a look at the attached updated User Guide and let me know blah blah.

Blah,

Blah Blah.

Does the sentence sound right or had I better rephrase it so as to avoid "attached updated"? For example,

Please find the updated User Guide attached and let me know blah blah.

Armen Ծիրունյան
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  • Although I support the accepted answer, I want to offer another alternative: Please find the updated User Guide (attached) and let me know etc. – aparente001 Jun 04 '17 at 14:16
  • @aparente001 Add a comma after the parenthesis, and you're good to go. –  Jul 29 '17 at 01:04
  • @SebastianPojman - A comma there would be optional. – aparente001 Jul 29 '17 at 01:27
  • @aparente001 Could you review my answer please? Thank you!

    https://english.stackexchange.com/a/403340/231780

     –  Jul 29 '17 at 02:35

4 Answers4

7

Both versions are grammatical.

Please take a look at the attached updated User Guide and let me know...

There is no rule which prohibits the use of two adjectives in a row before the noun they modify, as is the case with updated and attached here.

Please find the updated User Guide attached and let me know...

Here, attached is an elliptic form of a subordinate relative clause. The full form is:

Please find the updated User Guide which is attached and let me know...

Which one you will eventually choose depends on your stylistic preferences.

Irene
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  • Make sure that you use which when it is an nonessential clause and that when it is an essential clause. Good answer anyway. –  Jun 06 '17 at 03:51
3

The string of adjectives is fine, but I think you should either put a comma after Guide or start a new sentence after Guide. (Google: comma before conjunction in compound sentences).

Please take a look at the attached updated User Guide, and let me know blah blah.

or

Please take a look at the attached updated User Guide. Let me know blah blah.

You could also reword it:

Please take a look at the updated User Guide, which is attached, and let me know blah blah.

Or

I have attached the updated User Guide. Please let me know blah blah.

JLG
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2

Both work just fine because both have clauses with a subject and a verb, making them complete sentences, but as a native speaker of English, the second version sounds better to my ear.

Corrections to both need to be made, though.

  1. Please take a look at the attached, updated user guide, and let me know blah blah.

  2. Please find the updated user guide attached, and let me know blah blah.

I'm not sure what the details of your user guides are, but I'm guessing that those details (attached, updated) are not important, so I recommend putting a comma between them. You need a comma after "attached" and "guide" because it follows a clause starting with "and." You shouldn't capitalize "user guide" because it's not a proper noun (I'm only assuming this).

0

Multiple adjectives in a row before a single noun is a notoriously tricky situation for non-native English speakers to master. It's perfectly grammatically correct and does not require any commas to separate them, but certain orders of adjectives sound very "wrong," while others sound fine. Unfortunately, it's difficult to come up with a comprehensive set of rules for the "correct"-sounding ordering, because it's based almost entirely on instinct and experience. See here for a discussion.

But in your specific case, the phrase "attached updated User Guide" sounds perfectly fine to me.

tparker
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