The little red writing book - Brandon Royal 2007

Favor verbs, not nouns
Style

Principle #12: Avoid nominalizing your verbs and adjectives.

The word nominalization is a fancy sounding but important concept in writing. It describes the process by which verbs and adjectives are turned into nouns. Nominalizations weaken writing for a variety of reasons, mainly because they make sentences longer and force the reader to work harder to extract the sentence’s meaning. The next page shows several examples of nominalizations.

Avoid turning verbs into nouns:

So, “reduction of costs” is best written as “reduce costs,” “development of a 5-year plan” is best written as “develop a 5-year plan,” and “reliability of the data” is best written as “rely on the data.”

Avoid turning adjectives into nouns:

So, “precision of measurements” is best written as “precise measurements,” “creativity of individuals” is best written as “creative individuals,” and “reasonableness of working hours” is best written as “reasonable working hours.”

Also, all verbs can be turned into nouns (called gerunds) when adding -ing (for example, speaking, carrying, and engaging).

EXAMPLE

Original:

Is the drinking of alcohol by students allowed on campus?

Better:

May students drink alcohol on campus?

The gerund “drinking” is best changed to the verb “drink.”

EXERCISE

Rewrite the following sentences replacing nouns with either adjectives or verbs.

See suggested solutions

1. Amateur cyclists must work on the development of their own training programs.

2. The inability to make decisions is a military leader’s darkest enemy.

3. The expert panel’s best estimate includes a 20 percent reduction in pollution as a result of the implementation of the new clean air bill.

4. Most dietitians advocate cutting down on the eating of fatty foods and reducing the intake of carbohydrates as the best means of losing weight.

5. Reasonableness and evenhandedness were not among the politician’s strong suits.

6. The standardization of entrance exams helps ensure that students can apply to college and graduate school programs on an equal footing.

7. Hearing celebrities airing their political views on television should not be viewed as done in bad taste.

8. The applicability of using traditional accounting formulas for the valuation of Internet companies was never seriously questioned by investors prior to the first dot-com bust.

9. Our supervisor made a decision in favor of firing three employees.

10. Individuals who exhibit creativity and spontaneity should be encouraged to follow their dreams.