Academic Writing: Structures: Relationship explicit between your ideas

Nominalisation can be used to express the relationship between sentences more efficiently. In addition, nominalisation allows you to reduce several sentences into a single, more complex sentence. That is, further comment on an idea in one sentence can be included in a single nominalised sentence instead of in several sentences. This structure also has the effect of making the relationship between the ideas expressed in the two sentences more explicit.

There are various relationships that we make between our ideas. These include the following relationship types:

Look at the following two simple sentences. These can be collapsed into one clause and the relationship between the ideas can be made more explicit to the reader.

In 1989, Romania declared independence from communist rule. This resulted in increased freedoms for the population.

Before connecting the two sentences, you must first consider what the relationship is between the two ideas. In this case, the verb of the second sentence, 'resulted', indicates a cause/effect relationship exists between these sentences.

The nominalised first sentence can, therefore, be connected to the second sentence by using this verb.

In 1989, Romania's declaration of independence from communism resulted in increased freedoms for the population.

The verb of the first sentence has been nominalised.

The verb of the second sentence becomes the verb of the newly formed sentence.

Look at the following examples of sentences with different types of relationships. The relationship between the sentences is made more explicit when the first sentence is nominalised and the verb of the second sentence becomes the verb of the newly formed sentence, in effect, joining the sentences together.

Relationship	Original sentences	Nominalised version
Cause & Effect	Scientists discovered how to fuse atoms. This led to the development of the atomic bomb.	The discovery of atomic fusion led to the development of the atomic bomb.
Comparison / Contrast	Persecution is the criteria used to select applicants for refugee status. This contrasts to normal immigration assessment criteria.	The use of persecution as the criteria to select applicants for refugee status contrasts to normal immigration assessment criteria.
Addition of information	I think euthanasia is important. Its importance is its concern with human rights.	The importance of euthanasia is its concern with human rights.

NOTE: Sometimes, you will need to add a verb into the newly joined sentences that more explicitly describes the relationship between the clauses.

Original sentences	The building incorporated environmentally sustainable features. Therefore, it had low energy costs.
Nominalised sentence	The incorporation of environmentally sustainable features into the building resulted in low energy costs.	The relationship between the ideas is made more explicit by the addition of this word.

Making The Relationship Explicit Between Your Ideas