Attack of the zombie nouns
By Emily Halloran
There’s something creeping through your emails, haunting your board papers and draining the life from your reports. They look harmless. Professional, even. Words like utilisation, implementation, completion and finalisation. These are zombie nouns, and they’re eating your writing alive.
What are zombie nouns and why are they a problem?
Zombie nouns, also known as nominalisations, are verbs or adjectives that have turned into nouns, usually by adding -tion or -ment.
For example, ‘we investigated’ becomes ‘we conducted an investigation’.
While nominalisations make things sound more formal, which some writers falsely equate with professionalism, they also:
- make sentences longer and harder to read
- hide who’s doing the action
- take clear, active sentences and turn them into a lifeless mess.
How can you bring your writing back from the dead?
Simply find the verb you really want to use and identify who is doing what. We recommend translating these zombie nouns into plain language alternatives:
| Zombie noun | Plain language alternative |
|---|---|
| completion of the project | [our team] completed the project |
| conducted an investigation | [the police] investigated |
| finalisation of the report | [they] finalised the report |
| give consideration | [the committee] considers |
| held a discussion | [we] discussed |
| made an assessment | [the director] assessed |
For more advice about identifying who is doing what and using the active voice, read our article: Why do readers prefer active voice? Lessons from Yoda and Ivar the Boneless.
Want to fight those zombie nouns? Contact us today for plain language training and editing services that liven up your writing.
