Eliminate Nominalization from your Technical Writing

 
© Ugur Akinci
Eliminate nominalization (i.e., turning verbs and adjectives into nouns)  not only from your technical documents but from all your writing.
Nominalization is the name grammarians have given to the process by which direct verbs are turned into convoluted phrases by adding suffixes like –tion, –ment, etc. There are other ways (fertile is the human mind!) to obfuscate the meaning of otherwise clear sentences.
Nominalization is a problem not only for the  native-speakers of English but those who read the translated versions of the same document. When technical documents are translated and localized, nominalized phrases become major sources of error.
We’ll provide selected examples here to illustrate the point.
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have reservations about
“I have reservations that it’s true.”
BETTER: “I doubt that it’s true.”
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make a suggestion
“He made a suggestion that we switch panels.”
BETTER: “He suggested we switch panels.”
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make a decision
“We made a decision to upgrade our software.”
BETTER: “We decided to upgrade our software.”
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led to the destruction of
“The experiment led to the destruction of the X45 circuit.””
BETTER: “The experiment destroyed the X45 circuit.”
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resulted in delay of
“Insufficient funds led to the delay of the project.”
BETTER: “Insufficient funds delayed the project.”
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reach an agreement
“We reached an agreement to stop the experiment on August 4th.”
BETTER: “We agreed to stop the experiment on August 4th.”
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offer (or, give) an explanation for
“He offered a good explanation for the anomaly.”
BETTER: “He explained the anomaly well.”
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result in delay of
“The snow storm resulted in delay of all flights.”
BETTER: “The snow storm delayed all flights.”
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perform an audit
“The HR team performed an audit of all time cards.”
BETTER: “The HR team audited all time cards.”
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effectuate a system shut-down
“The PM effectuated a system shut-down to prevent a melt-down.”
BETTER: “The PM shut down the system to prevent a melt-down.”