Pimp my English | Transforming noun constructions into verbs

By Anna Malczyk
Sometimes, in an effort to sound more formal or official, we write a sentence using a noun construction rather than the simpler, easier to understand verb equivalent.

A noun construction is any group of words that has a noun as the “main” word. Here, we’re going to be talking about the type of noun constructions that looks like this: “the [noun] of”.
Here are some examples:
•    The submission of the registration form
•    The taking of a photo
•    The completion of the course
•    The reading of the notes

Note that these are not grammatically wrong in themselves.

Why you should avoid this
Quite simply, the main reasons are because these constructions are confusing (for both reader and writer), difficult to read and go against the principles of writing simply, clearly and politely. For example:
•    This is the reason why the avoidance of noun constructions is recommended.
•    This is the reason why the avoiding of noun constructions is recommended.

These sentences are long and sound very strange.
As a rule of thumb, any time you can take a three-word construction and change it to one word, you should. This is vital to simple and clear writing.

Transform into verbs
In almost all cases you can think of, it is much better, simpler and easier to substitute this “the [noun] of” construction with a verb. For example:
•    This is the reason why avoiding noun constructions is recommended.

With that small change, the sentence suddenly becomes that much clearer.

Which verb?
In these sorts of constructions, the [noun] is always one that stems from a verb, since the noun construction always implies some sort of action. Therefore, the verb you should use is already “built in” to the sentence (in some cases, you don’t even need to change the noun itself). For example:
•    The use of unleaded fuel is good for the environment.
•    The doing of homework is important for learning.
•    We encourage the learning of new skills and the completion of practical exercises.

Become:
•    Using unleaded fuel is good for the environment.
•    Doing homework is important for learning.
•    We encourage learning new skills and completing practical exercises.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license.