---
title: "Overuse of Nominalizations | English Prose Style"
description: "Overuse of nominalizations turns verbs into nouns, making prose wordier and less direct in English Prose Style writing, revision, and analysis."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/english-prose-style/key-terms/overuse-of-nominalizations"
type: "key-term"
subject: "English Prose Style"
unit: "Unit 8"
---

# Overuse of Nominalizations | English Prose Style

## Definition

Overuse of nominalizations is when a writer turns actions into nouns too often, which makes prose wordier and less direct. In English Prose Style, you revise by turning those nouns back into strong verbs when possible.

## What It Is

Overuse of nominalizations in English Prose Style means relying too much on noun forms of actions or qualities, such as turning decide into decision or analyze into analysis. The sentence still makes sense, but it usually sounds heavier, less lively, and more indirect.

The issue is not that nominalizations are always wrong. English prose uses them all the time when you need to name an idea, summarize a process, or sound formal. The problem shows up when too many of them pile up in the same sentence or paragraph, making the writing feel abstract instead of clear.

A common pattern is that the action gets buried inside a noun, while the real doer of the action disappears. Compare “The committee made a decision” with “The committee decided.” The second version is shorter, stronger, and easier to read because the verb carries the action directly.

This matters a lot in revision because nominalizations often hide where the sentence can be tightened. If you find phrases like “the implementation of,” “the analysis of,” or “the creation of,” you can often ask whether a plain verb would say the same thing with less clutter. That does not mean every noun form should be removed, only that you should check whether the sentence is clearer when the action stays in verb form.

Writers often overuse nominalizations when they are trying to sound formal, academic, or objective. In practice, that can backfire, because formal writing still needs motion and precision. Good prose in this course balances noun-based phrasing with direct verbs so the sentence keeps its rhythm and its meaning stays easy to follow.

## Why It Matters

Overuse of nominalizations is one of the fastest ways to make prose feel flat, vague, or harder to revise. In English Prose Style, you are constantly looking for places where the sentence is carrying extra weight for no payoff, and nominalizations are a common source of that weight.

This term connects directly to clarity and concision. When you turn a verb into a noun, you often add extra words around it, like prepositions or empty support phrases. That can make a sentence longer without making it more informative, which is exactly the kind of writing revision is meant to fix.

It also affects tone. A sentence full of nouns like decision, consideration, implementation, and discussion can sound stiff or bureaucratic, even if the grammar is correct. If your goal is readable prose, you need to notice when the style is hiding the action instead of showing it.

The term shows up in editing comments, peer reviews, and sentence-level revision tasks. If a teacher circles a sentence and asks for a sharper verb, you are often being asked to fix nominalization overload, not just shorten the line. Being able to spot that pattern helps you explain what sounds off and how to repair it.

## Connections

### Verb

Nominalizations are built from verbs, so the easiest fix is often to restore the verb form. When you change “made a decision” to “decided,” the sentence usually becomes more direct and more active. This connection helps you see that revision is not just about cutting words, it is about choosing the right part of speech to carry the action.

### Clarity

Nominalizations can bury the main action and make a sentence harder to parse on the first read. Clear prose usually keeps the subject and action visible instead of hiding them inside abstract nouns. If a sentence feels foggy, checking for nominalizations is one practical way to improve clarity without rewriting the whole passage.

### Conciseness

Overuse of nominalizations often creates extra prepositional phrases and filler around the real idea. That means more words, but not more meaning. In revision, concision is not just about making things shorter, it is about removing the extra layers that nominalizations often force into the sentence.

### [Low Information Density](/english-prose-style/key-terms/low-information-density)

Nominalizations can make prose lower in information density because the sentence spends more space naming the action than delivering it. You may get a long phrase like “the evaluation of the results” when a simple verb could do the job faster. This connection is useful when you are comparing a wordy draft to a tighter revision.

## On the AP Exam

A revision question may give you a wordy sentence and ask how to make it clearer or more concise. If you spot a nominalization, your move is to look for the original verb and rebuild the sentence around it, like changing “The team conducted an analysis of the data” to “The team analyzed the data.” You may also be asked to explain why the original sounds stiff, abstract, or bloated. In passage-based writing tasks, identifying nominalizations helps you point to the exact wording that weakens the prose and describe a cleaner revision.

## Key Takeaways

- Overuse of nominalizations happens when a writer turns actions into nouns too often, which makes prose wordier and less direct.
- A nominalization is not automatically bad, but too many of them can hide the main action and weaken the sentence’s energy.
- A fast revision move is to look for a noun like decision, analysis, or implementation and ask whether a strong verb would work better.
- This term is closely tied to clarity and concision, since nominalizations often add extra words without adding real meaning.
- In English Prose Style, the goal is not to ban nominalizations, but to use them when they fit and avoid them when they make the writing dull or vague.

## FAQs

### What is overuse of nominalizations in English Prose Style?

It is the habit of turning verbs or adjectives into nouns too often, which makes writing sound more abstract and less direct. In revision, you usually fix it by turning the noun back into a verb when that makes the sentence clearer.

### What is an example of a nominalization?

A simple example is changing “decide” into “decision” or “analyze” into “analysis.” Those noun forms can be useful, but if a sentence depends on them too much, it often gets wordy and less lively.

### How do I fix a sentence with too many nominalizations?

Find the main action and ask who is doing it. Then rewrite so the action is in a verb form instead of hidden inside a noun phrase, like “The board reached a decision” becoming “The board decided.”

### Is a nominalization always bad writing?

No. Nominalizations are useful when you need to refer to an idea as a thing, especially in formal or analytical prose. The problem is overuse, where the writing starts to feel heavy and indirect instead of clear.

## Related Study Guides

- [8.2 Revising for Clarity and Concision](/english-prose-style/unit-8/revising-clarity-concision/study-guide/2ac6cidRZfLclzNj)

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