"The efforts involved" vs. "the effort involved"
…this we are doing proactively in order to have a better understanding at coming up with an estimate in case you want to know the effort involved.
Should I go with "efforts" or "effort" in the statement above? I cannot make up my mind; both options look okay to me. Any ideas?
Solution 1:
I would use effort. You need a mass noun there, like work — and indeed, effort in that sentence means the total work involved.
Efforts indicates attempts, which you don't really want to imply, even if they were ultimately successful.
ODO on effort
effort: the result of an attempt:
he was a keen gardener, winning many prizes for his efforts
Solution 2:
As discussed in this forum post, "efforts" is used when
- Multiple people work separately on the project, or
- One person has been repeatedly unsuccessful but keeps trying.
In your example, neither of the above applies, so I would use "effort".