© Paul Smit 2006-2020
In academic writing, it is important to sound educated, scientific and to and to rely on solid evidence, rather than emotion or mere opinion. It is important to express yourself in an impersonal, objective way. Nominalisation is one of the tools used to achieve this. So what is nominalisation? Nominalisation is the process of changing verbs and verb phrases into nouns and noun phrases. For example, rather than using the verbs agree, reproduce and combine, we might use the nouns agreement, reproduction and combination. Likewise, we might nominalise the adjectives important, excellent and probable by using the noun forms importance, excellence and probability. Let’s start with a comparison. In spoken English and informal written English, we use tend to write with subject–verb or subject–verb–object structures such as:
Example 1:
The murder rate has been rising for some time now and the police are very concerned.
While there is nothing wrong with this sentence, a text comprised entirely of sentences like this would not be considered ‘academic’.
Nominalising the example:
| Verb phrase | Nominalisation |
| has been rising for some time now | the sustained rise |
| are very concerned | great concern |
The sustained rise in the murder rate has caused great concern for the police.
Note: the text now is mostly made up of long noun phrases (the two phrases in bold). The final sentence now looks much more academic.
Example 2:
Let’s look at another example. Again, this sentence is perfectly acceptable on its own but could be more formal:
Recently, more women have been entering medical practice. Many experts think that this is good because more women now can now see female doctors.
Example nominalised version:
The recent increase in the number of female doctors is considered a positive development for women because it results in greater access for women to female doctors.
In the nominalised version, you can see that some of the verb structures have been changed into nouns. Noun phrases dominate, ideas are better connected and the text sounds more formal.
The benefits of nominalising
- It makes a text sound more formal, academic and objective.
- Repetition can be avoided.
- Highly nominalised texts are generally more precise.
- Sentences are generally longer and more complex and ideas are easier to connect.
- Nominalising is a useful strategy for paraphrasing.
© Paul Smit 2006-2020