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Academic Writing
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Why use nominalisation?

Nominalisation is a significant feature of academic writing contributing greatly to its impersonal tone, abstraction and complexity.

Using nominalisations in your writing will have four main effects:

1. Actions or processes (verbs) become concepts (nouns)

 

ORIGINAL

NOMINALISED
We walked for charity. The charity walk ....
People benefit from modern technology. The benefits of modern technology .....

 

2. The people doing the actions can often be left out.
(This helps to foster an impersonal, formal tone in your writing).
Click here for more information on impersonal language.

 

ORIGINAL

NOMINALISED
We walked for charity. The charity walk ....
People benefit from modern technology. The benefits of modern technology .....

3. Transforming actions into abstract concepts allows you to comment further upon the concept (from an objective stance).

 

ORIGINAL

NOMINALISED
We walked for charity. The charity walk was the major fundraising event for the Leukemia Foundation.
People benefit from modern technology. The benefits of modern technology include an increased standard of living.

4. The number of clauses of information is reduced; therefore, the 'wordiness' of your writing is decreased. This occurs because more information is able to be compressed into each nominal (noun) group.
(for more information on extending the nominal group, click here)

 

ORIGINAL

NOMINALISED
/ Birds fly. / This is essential for birds / if they want to survive. / / Flight is essential for a bird's survival. /

 

The original sentence has three clauses while the nominalised sentence has only one.


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