Nominalisation and extended nominal groups

Nominalisation and extended nominal groups are significant features of academic writing. The ability to nominalise verbs and to construct extended nominal groups is intrinsic to becoming a sophisticated writer at University.

Warning:

If nominalisation is used in every sentence, your writing will sound too abstract and may be difficult to read. Be careful to use a mixture of nominalisation, passive voice and active voice.

Sometimes if you expand your nominal group to include too much information your meaning may become unclear. In this case, it would be better to 'unpack' some of the information from your nominal group and put it into a separate clause.