I am still baffled by how heavily academic writing relies on nominalisations. These phrases fill and extend scientific publications and make them unnecessarily tricky to comprehend.
Yet, many researchers don’t realise that they use nominalisations and don’t know what they are. Basically, a nominalisation is a complex phrase in which the verb is turned into a noun. This removes the action and adds a bunch of filler words and prepositions to correct the grammar. Thus, these phrases clutter sentences and extend them for no apparent reason.
Unfortunately, nominalisations often go along with passive-voice phrases, which we’ve seen further remove key players in sentences. Despite this making sentences incredibly difficult to grasp, nominalisations are hallmarks of scientific research papers. But ask yourself: Even if a paper is in your niche, how often do you sometimes need to re-read a sentence to understand what is really going on?
Why nominalisations are a problem in science communication
As I regularly come across articles written by scientists, I found a few examples to help you understand the issue. The sentences below are from real articles written for non-scientists. Read through them and try to understand what they are saying.
- Experimental application of antibiotics can be used to assess whether live bacteria are actively contributing to host metabolism or immune function.
- A combination of many different channels enables the cell to have a transient and energy-efficient response to different osmotic conditions.
- The Nitrosopumilus genomes also possess cation/proton antiporters, which mediate the transport of sodium or potassium ions across the membrane.
Are you struggling to understand the science behind these sentences? Do you need to read them a few times to fully comprehend what they say?
Trust me, it’s not you. It’s how the sentences are formulated. They are full of nominalisations, which come with the following issues:
- Lack of story: Sentences with nominalisations state facts. They tell no real story, since no action verbs are used. To make knowledge accessible with storytelling, we need to rely on powerful active verbs.
- Higher cognitive load: For non-scientists, comprehending complex scientific concepts is already tricky, and even more so when presented with abstract nouns. Readers tend to imagine what they are reading, but visualising a static concept is incredibly difficult. An action, however, is a lot easier.
- Missing clarity and precision: The key information is buried in abstract nouns, which can lead to unclear meaning and ambiguity. More precise active language by clearly describing a mechanism or action makes it easier for the reader to comprehend and visualise.
Improving science writing by substituting nominalisations
So, how can we improve these sentences? First, we need to identify the nominalisations:
- experimental application can be used
- a combination of X enables
- have a transient and energy-efficient response
- mediate the transport of
Next, we want to substitute these nominalisations with active verbal phrases. Sometimes, we may need to restructure a sentence to make it fit the new phrase. But generally, this only improves the logical structure of the sentence.
Have a read through these examples:
- Applying antibiotics experimentally can be used to assess whether live bacteria are actively contributing to host metabolism or immune function.
OR
- To assess whether live bacteria are actively contributing to host metabolism or immune function, we can apply antibiotics experimentally.
- By combining many different channels, the cell can respond to different osmotic conditions in a transient and energy-efficient manner.
- The Nitrosopumilus genomes also possess cation/proton antiporters, which transport sodium or potassium ions across the membrane.
Do you see the difference?
The content of the sentences is still the same, but described differently and as a progressive transformative narrative. The sentences now rely more on active verbs and phrases. This helps the reader better imagine the science and what is happening.
- What I kept: The scientific meaning, key terms and sequence of ideas remained the same.
- What I changed: I replaced nominalisations with clear, active verbs. This makes the actors more explicit as we now know that “we” can apply, “the cell” can respond and “antiporters” transport.
- Why it works: The reader can now visualise both the action and actor. This reduces mental effort and makes the mechanism easier to follow.
As mentioned before, it is better to be clear about the action in a sentence. Instead of saying “make a decision” or “give consideration to”, use the direct verbs: “decide” or “consider”. These are a lot shorter and more direct.
How you can enhance your science writing by avoiding nominalisations
Before you head back to the last thing you wrote and substitute every noun for active verbs, a couple of things to keep in mind:
- Do not force an active verb if you genuinely do not know who did the action.
- Keep important scientific nouns and just fix the surrounding narrative backbone. In the cases here, I would not change “osmoadaptation” or “antiporter”.
- Ensure that the noun’s action is still scientifically correct and that the verb is in the corresponding tense.
Do you want to give it a go yourself? Test your science writing capabilities in the following sentences. Can you substitute the nominalisations with active verbal phrases?
- Experimental research is needed to verify the involvement of the proteins encoded by the proposed gene clusters.
- It was also identified in the genome of N. marinum and may be associated with a function in osmoadaptation.
- We screened the genomes for genes involved in the synthesis or transport of amino acids.
Even though widely used in academic writing, nominalisations can make your writing feel abstract and hard to follow. To focus a sentence on an action and a key player, we should try to swap nominalisations wherever we can for active verbs. This shortens the sentence while making the described science easier to visualise. And with better visualisation, your reader is more likely to remember what they are reading.
So, try rewriting just one nominalisation today and make a real impact with your science.
