Representing actions with nouns
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Reasons for representing actions with nouns | page 2 of 9 |
Expressing ideas concisely
Many of the phenomena dealt with in technical texts involve extremely complex processes, and so nominalisation provides a shorthand label for the phenomena in question, allowing the writer to package the various components of the clause into a single noun:
Sewage treatment is something most of us never think about, yet it is a relatively straightforward process which contributes immeasurably to the comfort of modern urban life. Sewage treatment involves a simple process of screening the effluent, followed by a period of settlement and separation, after which the water is ready for purification and the remaining sludge for disposal.
In the above extract, each noun summarises a whole chain of events without the
writer having to mention who or what is responsible for doing what. For example, the noun screening
summarises the following underlying scenario: "Workers at the sewage plant
operate powerful pumps designed to force the effluent through wire screens which catch
larger solids such as plastic and cloth." 
Normally, writers of technical texts are able to assume that the reader will understand the background of the subject and so make frequent use of nominalised processes such as those highlighted above. This results in considerably more concise writing.
The possibility for the noun group to be expanded 
is another important aspect of how nominalisation can help
writers to write concisely. For example, adjectives can be used to modify the noun rather
than the less concise and stylistically awkward use of adverbials
. Consider the following use of strength:
It needs tremendous moral strength to say, well, I find that palatable and acceptable. (Bank of English)
In this excerpt, the writer is able to express the type of strength (moral) and
the degree of that strength (tremendous) through adding two adjectives to pre-modify the noun. If the writer
had used the adjective strong, the wording would have required an adverbial which
would have been less concise, and more clumsy:
A person would have to be tremendously strong in a moral sense ...
The flexibility of the noun group also allows a piling up of noun modifiers, each of which can itself be a nominalisation:
Both economists doubted that government expenditure growth could be kept in line with the rate of economic growth. (SCMP 8/10/92)
Here, there are three nominalisations in a row, with the head noun growth being premodified by two other nominalisations, government and expenditure. The piling up of nominalisations leads to very concise writing, although the downside is that it can be very difficult for readers to process what is going on.
For further information about some of the problems that students have with
nominalisation, see 
Representing actions with nouns:
Students' problems.
Introduction
Expressing ideas concisely
