Read the following sentence and try to ignore the heavy sensation settling behind your eyes:
“The implementation of a reduction in costs was achieved through the utilization of enhanced efficiency strategies.”
If reading that sentence felt like wading through molasses, you are not alone. It is technically grammatically correct, yet it is stylistically dead. It has no pulse. It lacks movement. This is a classic example of corporate and academic writing that has suffered a fatal infection. The virus? Nominalization.
In the world of linguistics and clear communication, these mutated words have a more colorful name, coined by author and academic Helen Sword: Zombie Nouns.
Just like their cinematic counterparts, Zombie Nouns cannibalize living, breathing verbs, stripping the life out of your sentences and leaving behind a shuffling, stumbling mess of jargon. In this post, we are going to dissect this linguistic plague, understand why smart people use it, and learn how to resuscitate your writing.
What is Nominalization?
In strict linguistic terms, nominalization is a form of derivational morphology where a word that is not a noun—usually a verb or an adjective—is transformed into a noun. We do this by adding suffixes.
Common “Zombie” suffixes include:
- -tion (describe → description)
- -ment (develop → development)
- -ence/ance (assist → assistance)
- -ility (able → ability)
- -ism (criticize → criticism)
When used sparingly, these words are harmless. In fact, they are essential for abstract thought. We need words like “happiness”, “evolution”, and “taxation.” The problem arises when we take a sentence where something is actually happening—a sentence that deserves a strong verb—and we smother that action by turning the verb into a noun.
The Psychology: Why Do We Create Zombies?
If nominalization makes writing harder to read, why is it the default setting for business reports, academic papers, and government policies? The answer lies in the psychology of prestige and safety.
1. The Illusion of Prestige
Many writers fall into the trap of thinking that complexity equals intelligence. Simple verbs like “use”, “eat”, or “read” feel too pedestrian for a quarterly report or a PhD thesis. Instead, writers reach for “utilization”, “consumption”, or “perusal.” It creates a veneer of sophistication, but in reality, creates a barrier between the writer and the reader.
2. Hiding the Agent (The Blame Game)
This is the darker side of nominalization. Strong verbs usually require a subject—someone doing the action. Nominalizations, however, allow the writer to delete the people involved entirely. This is often called “bureaucratese.”
- Strong Verb: “The factory polluted the river.” (Clear blame: The factory did it.)
- Zombie Noun: “The pollution of the river occurred.” (Who did it? It’s a mystery. Pollution just… happened.)
By nominalizing “pollute” into “pollution”, the writer removes the human element of agency. This is politically convenient, but linguistically opaque.
The Three Symptoms of a Zombie Infestation
How do you know if your writing is suffering from the plague of nominalization? Look for these three specific symptoms.
1. Weak “Crutch” Verbs
When you kill a strong verb by turning it into a noun, your sentence still needs a grammatical verb to function. Since you removed the real action, you are forced to use weak, empty verbs to prop up the sentence. Common crutch verbs include is, are, was, have, make, give, and conduct.
Example:
Instead of “We analyzed the data”, the zombie writer says, “We conducted an analysis of the data.” The energy of “analyze” is lost, replaced by the boring verb “conducted.”
2. The Prepositional Glue
Nouns cannot connect to other nouns directly; they need glue. That glue usually comes in the form of prepositions, specifically the word “of.” If you scan a paragraph and see a high frequency of “of”, you are likely looking at a nominalization problem.
Example:
“The establishment of a method for the assessment of the team…”
(Translation: “Setting up a way to assess the team…”)
3. Increased Word Count
Because you need crutch verbs and prepositional glue to accommodate your zombie nouns, your word count inevitably bloats. Nominal-heavy writing is almost always 20% to 30% longer than verb-driven writing.
The Cure: Resuscitating Your Sentences
Now that we have diagnosed the disease, let’s look at the treatment. Curing zombie nouns requires you to reconnect with the “engine” of your sentence: the action.
Here are several “Before and After” examples to demonstrate how denationalizing your writing makes it punchier, clearer, and more human.
Example 1: The Business Email
Zombie Version: “We request the immediate submission of your application to ensure the prioritization of your candidacy.”
Revived Version: “Please submit your application immediately so we can prioritize your candidacy.”
Notice the shift: “Submission” becomes “submit.” “Prioritization” becomes “prioritize.” The sentence is now actionable and direct.
Example 2: The Academic Abstract
Zombie Version: “The movement of the participants was an indication of their hesitation regarding the acceptance of the new rules.”
Revived Version: “The participants moved in a way that indicated they hesitated to accept the new rules.”
By changing “indication”, “hesitation”, and “acceptance” back into verbs, we can actually visualize the people in the sentence.
Example 3: The Policy Document
Zombie Version: “There is a requirement for the limitation of noise levels after 10 PM.”
Revived Version: “You must limit noise levels after 10 PM.”
The first sentence is a disembodied rule floating in space. The second is a direct instruction.
Is Nominalization Ever Good?
In the spirit of linguistic nuance, we must admit that zombies aren’t always the enemy. Sometimes, nominalization is a useful tool for cohesion.
Writers often use nominalization to summarize the previous sentence so they can move the argument forward. This is called the “given-new” structure.
Valid Usage Example:
“The scientists discovered that the cells were mutating rapidly. This mutation allowed them to study the virus in a new light.”
In this case, turning “mutate” into “mutation” works perfectly because it encapsulates the previous action into a single concept (a noun) that can serve as the subject of the next sentence. This is healthy nominalization. It becomes a problem only when the noun swallows the action within the same clause.
How to De-Zombify Your Writing Today
Ready to clean up your prose? You don’t need a degree in syntax to fix this. You just need a simple editing workflow. Here is a step-by-step guide to exorcising zombie nouns from your drafts:
- The “Highlighter” Test: Go through your text and highlight every word ending in -tion, -ment, -ance, or -ism. If your page looks like a sea of yellow, you have a problem.
- Find the Action: Look at a sentence with a zombie noun (e.g., “investigation”). Ask yourself: “What is the action here?” (Answer: investigate).
- Find the Actor: Ask yourself: “Who is doing the investigating?” (Answer: The police, the researchers, we).
- Rebuild: Put the Actor and the Action together. “The police investigated…”
- Delete the Fluff: Strike out the crutch verbs (conducted, effectuated) and the extra prepositions (of, for, regarding).
Conclusion
Language is a living thing. It is meant to move, breathe, and convey action. When we rely too heavily on nominalization, we calcify our thoughts, turning dynamic ideas into static, heavy objects that our readers must labor to lift.
The next time you sit down to write—whether it is an email to a colleague, a term paper, or a blog post—watch out for the zombies. Don’t “make a decision”; just decide. Don’t “formulate a plan”; just plan. Your readers will thank you for it, and your writing will finally come back to life.