Everyone wants to quickly improve their writing skills, but mastering the finer elements of effective style takes time. Here is one surefire way a person can sharpen his writing skills - making text more active, clear, and efficient in moments. Master this simple technique, and, presto, a paper will read more clearly and actively, with little overall effort.
A noun is a person, place, or thing, while a verb conveys the action occurring in a sentence. Often, a writer uses nouns in places where verbs would actually work better. This practice of "turning a verb or an adjective into a noun" (definition from The Ohio State University) is known as a nominalization, and it leaves a paper sounding bloated and sluggish.
Fortunately, this common writing style blunder can easily be remedied, immediately improving anyone's writing style.
When a Noun Should Be a Verb: Examples of Inactive and Sluggish Writing
Before seeing how this technique can be used to write more clearly, here are some examples of phrases where a noun should really be a verb.
- creation of e-learning content
- restoration of contaminated land
- the design and production of brochures
- the evaluation of options
- development of a website
- unveiling of the masterpiece
- the use of fabric softener
- avoidance of homework
How Do These Misplaced Nouns Detract From Clear Writing?
Reading the above examples out loud highlights their wordiness. Using a noun like this, when a verb would be more effective, makes text wordier and less active. How is this bad for a document?
First of all, active language is clearer, more readable, and more interesting. Extra words confuse readers. Being clear and brief is critical for any type of writing. The more concise the writing (the fewer words), the easier a sentence is to read and understand.
Second, going on and on bores readers, leading writers to risk losing them and leading readers to miss valuable information. Being brief keeps the interest of readers and helps them retain information.
Making text more active, less wordy, clearer, and more concise: these are the hallmarks of efficient writing. Replacing nominalizations with verbs does exactly this, converting writing into a more active style.
Improve Writing Skills: Rewrite These Static Nouns as Active Verbs
How can these nouns be reworded into verbs to create an active writing style? The quickest way takes the beginning of the word, which is often the same or similar for both the noun and verb forms, and turns the end into a past or present verb.
This is best explained by showing how the nominalizations in the examples above can be rewritten into verbs, making the writing style more active.
- creation of e-learning content ----> creating e-learning content
- restoration of contaminated land ----> restore contaminated land
- the design and production of brochures ----> designing and producing brochures
- the evaluation of options ----> evaluating options
- development of a website ----> develop a website
- unveiling of the masterpiece ----> unveiling the masterpiece
- the use of fabric softener ----> using fabric softener
- avoidance of homework ----> avoiding homework
Reading the rewritten versions out loud demonstrates how much clearer they now sound.
Tips for Identifying These Stuffy Nouns to Make Writing More Active and Clear
It may be easy to see how to rewrite these phrases when given specific examples, and it may be easy to see how these kinds of edits improve writing skills. However, part of the task is identifying where to make these changes in the first place.
The following tips help identify which nouns could, or should, really be verbs:
Often, nominalized words end in the following suffixes:
- -tion (creation, identification)
- -ance (tolerance, avoidance)
- -ence (competence, coherence)
- -ment (agreement, assignment)
- -sion (admission, decision)
- -ity (conformity, capability)
- -ness (happiness, resourcefulness)
- -ing (the awarding of)
(Some of these suffixes were obtained from The Whitman College Writing Center.)
Nouns followed by "of" could be culprits (for example, "identification of" can be rewritten as "identifying," "identified," or "identify").
If a sentence contains many nouns, it may be a good idea to check the above criteria to see if any can be rewritten into verbs.
Not every word ending in "tion" or followed by "of" is a nominalization, and even some nominalizations may be useful to achieve certain stylistics effects. However, writers can't decide to use these special effects until they recognize that a writing style automatically becomes more active when replacing unnecessary nouns with verbs. Stylistic choices can be made intelligently and sparingly, once writers know how to avoid nominalizations.
Improving the Overall Clarity of a Person's Writing
Following this simple advice - rewriting appropriate nouns as verbs - instantly improves the overall style of a person's writing. Go from sluggish to active English and from muddy to clear text in mere moments. Improving anyone's writing skills has never been easier.
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