Nominal style

1
Nominal style

• Samples of the Writing Styles Used
• Active
• Researchers have found that more and more
  Americans are running to achieve physical
  fitness.
• Passive
• It has been found by researchers that more and
  more Americans are running to achieve physical
  fitness.
• Nominal
• The finding of researchers is that more and more
  Americans are running for the achievement of
  physical fitness.

2

• Many verbs have related nouns "decide" is
  related to "decision" "complain" to "complaint"
  "speak" to "speech." An idea can often be
  expressed with either a verb or a related noun.
  For example, you can complain or make a
  complaint.
• Writing that uses verbs (verbal style) is usually
  brief and clear. Writing that uses nouns (nominal
  style) can be too formal and wordy. Many drafters
  overuse nominal style.
• Example
• to implement pupil management techniques to
  manage pupils' behavior
• has knowledge or suspicion that
  knows or suspects that
• make application for
  apply for
• make payment for
  pay for
• make provision for
  provide for
• upon X's request to Y
  if X asks Y
• upon determination by X that
  if X determines that
• There are many other possibilities. The suffixes
  "-ance," "-ancy," "-ant," "-ence," "-ency,"
  "-ent," "-ion" and "-ment" often mark nouns
  derived from verbs. Whenever you see these
  suffixes, check for nominal style

3

• It was so silent it was frightening.
•  
• The silence gave rise to fear.
•  
• He was punished because he refused to
  participate.
•  
• His refusal to participate led to his punishment.
•  
• Many people move to the cities to find work.
•  
• A reason for population movement is employment.

4

• Doctors were concerned that the patient would die
  if she didn't stop bleeding.
• vs
• "Doctors were concerned that the hemorrhage would
  be fatal.
• In this example you can see the economy of word
  count achieved by nominalising the text, as well
  as the more authoritative tone.

5

• Police reacted violently to the crowd's drunken
  shouting and pushing, which led to a spate of
  clubbing of unarmed individuals, 12 of whom were
  hospitalised.
• vs
• The crowd's drunken behaviour provoked a violent
  police reaction, resulting in injuries.
• In this example you can also see the word
  economy, however, it is also clear that
  nominalisation, like the passive voice, can be
  used to hide agency. It is a popular technique of
  journalists writing to strict word limits.

6

• While this might at first appear as a logistic
  workload nightmare, in fact staff involved in the
  units have noted it was better sharing lesson
  preparation with other colleagues.
• vs
• While potentially a logistic workload nightmare,
  faculty actually noted significant benefits of
  shared lesson preparation with colleagues.
• This example eliminates wordiness through good
  editing as well as by nominalising the phrase
  "was better sharing" into "significant benefits
  of shared". As well as cutting words, the
  editing here offers a voice with more authority
  due to the increased density of the text and
  change from 'spoken' language to a more formal
  voice.

7
Academic writing frequently uses nominalisations
that is, the noun forms of verbs. The process
of nominalisation turns verbs (actions or
events) into nouns (things, concepts or people).
The text is now no longer describing actions it
is focused on objects or concepts

• for example
• We walked for charity.
• The verb 'walked' has been nominalised to the
  noun 'walk'
• The charity walk .....
• As you can see from the example above, when a
  verb is nominalised, it becomes a concept rather
  than an action. As a consequence, the tone of
  your writing will sound more abstract and also
  more formal
• Some more examples of nominalisation are provided
  below
• Crime was increasing rapidly and the police were
  becoming concerned.
• The rapid increase in crime was causing concern
  among the police.
• Germany invaded Poland in 1939. This was the
  immediate cause of the Second World War breaking
  out.
• Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 was the
  immediate cause of the outbreak of the Second
  World War.

8
Here is an extract from a biology report.
Nominalisation has been used frequently in this
passage, creating a more academic, abstract tone.
(The nouns formed as a result of nominalisation
of verb phrases are highlighted.)

• Formal Text
• The inequity in the distribution of wealth in
  Australia is yet another indicator of Australia's
  lack of egalitarianism. In1985, 20 of the
  Australian population owned 72.2 of the wealth
  with the top 50 owning 92.1 (Raskall, 1988
  287 ). Such a significant skew in the
  distribution of wealth indicates that, at least
  in terms of economics, there is an established
  class system in Australia. McGregor (1988) argues
  that Australian society can be categorised into
  three levels the Upper Middle and Working
  classes. In addition, it has been shown that most
  Australians continue to remain in the class into
  which they were born (McGregor,1988 156) despite
  arguments about the ease of social mobility in
  Australian society (Fitzpatrick, 1994). The issue
  of class and its inherent inequity, however, is
  further compounded by factors such as race and
  gender within and across these class
  divisions.The relative disadvantage of women
  with regard to their earnings and levels of asset
  ownership indicates that within classes there is
  further economic inequity based on gender.......
• Informal Text
• Because only a few people have most of the money
  and power in Australia, I conclude that it is not
  an equal society. Society has an Upper, Middle
  and Lower class and I think that most people when
  they are born into one class, end up staying in
  that class for their whole lives. When all three
  classes are looked at more closely, other things
  such as the differences between the sexes and
  people's racial backgrounds also add to the
  unequal nature of Australian society.Women earn
  less than men and own less than men. Why is this
  so?

9

• US researchers have genetically modified mice to
  be better at learning and remembering.
• The genetic ___________of mice has been
  undertaken by US researchers in order to increase
  the learning and memory skills of the mice.

10

• Team leader Joe Tsien, a neurobiologist at
  Princeton University said simply ''They're
  smarter.''
• Joe Tsien a Princeton University
  neurobiologist, who ____________the team,
  reported, ''They're smarter.''

11

• Humans also have this added gene, although it is
  not yet known whether it has the same function in
  people.
• In spite of the presence of this added gene in
  humans, it is not certain if the gene ________ in
  the same way.

12

• I think it's very unlikely that tinkering with
  one gene is going to increase intelligence and do
  nothing else.
• I believe it is unlikely that to tinker with
  one gene there will be an _____________ in
  intelligence and nothing more.

13

• Talk of genetically enhancing human intelligence
  is nonsense.
• It is foolish to talk of the genetic
  ___________ of human intelligence.