Subjects and Verbs

Readers feel they understand what you wrote when you do 2 things:
1.  You use subjects to name your central character.
2.  You express their most important action as a verb.

Federalist --> argued
They --> believe
Little Red Riding Hood --> walked

NOT
The argument --> was based

INSTEAD
They --> argued

Don't make your most important ACTION a Noun.  Use them as VERBS!

Confusing sentence

Our lack of data prevented evaluation of state actions in targeting fund to areas in need of assistance.
What?  .

Fix with -->
We lacked data.  We could not evaluate.that  the state had targeted funds to areas that needed assistance.

Try to keep the same character as your subject....in this example "We" is the consistent subject.