Usage of maverick as an adjective for a thing [duplicate]

I would be very grateful for some advice on how to decide whether to use an attributive noun or the "of genitive" (periphrastic genitive).

It seems to me that an attributive noun is generally preferable, except when it leads to ambiguity, often due to the combination of several modifiers with mixed dependent relationships.

Additionally, the of-genitive, when used stand-alone, seems to impart a more formal tone, a higher register.

Simple examples (preferred first, less-preferred second):

The department secretary vs. the secretary of the department.

But:

The excellent secretary of the department vs. the excellent department secretary.

Any additional guidelines would be most welcome.

Solution 1:

Simple examples (preferred first, less-preferred second):

The department secretary vs. the secretary of the department.

Fine.

The helpful secretary of the department vs. the helpful department secretary.

No, here you've put the less common one first.

Note, I replaced excellent with helpful, so the phrase would sound natural to my ear. But my answer holds for "excellent" too.

In general, stringing things out with lots of extraneous prepositions comes across as pompous or foreign-sounding.