In academic writing, nouns are preferred to verbs.
A lot of the style of academic writing is the result of changing verbs into nouns. For example:
| Normal style: | "Tomatoes now taste | worse than | they did 30 years ago." |
| Academic style: | "The taste of tomatoes | is now worse than | 30 years ago." |
In the example, the verb in the normal style sentence is "taste". This is changed to "The taste of" and the rest of the sentence is reworded to fit in with this change.
Here are some more examples:
What a set of data means => The meaning of a set of data
Apples cost £2 => The cost of apples is £2
Smith means that... => Smith's meaning is that...
This conversion of nouns into verbs is called nominalisation.
Here are some examples of verb forms changed to noun forms:
| Verb | Noun |
| evolve adjust clarify commence define dominate expand hypothesise innovate instruct occur perceive presume reject signify suspend transform |
evolution adjustment clarification commencement definition domination expansion hypothesis innovation instruction occurrence perception presumption rejection significance suspension transformation |
See if you can recognise the sentences that use nominalisation - and therefore the more academic sentences.
Now see if you can apply nominalisation to some sentences.
