Download Style Lesson 3: Actions

VERBS
Williams suggests that writers think of
sentences as stories with characters
(subjects) and actions (verbs).
Back in elementary school, we learned that
the subject of the sentence was the doer
of an action and the verb of a sentence
was the action.
Jane jumps. = subject verb (doer action)
But thethe action of the sentence doesn’t
have to be the verb of a sentence. Often
the action has been changed into a noun
by adding ing, tion, ment, ence, and so
on.
Jane jumps.
Jane’s jumping went on and on.
The action is jump but the verb is went.
Williams suggests we return to the idea of
doers=subjects and important actions=verbs.
Even complex academic prose will be more
clear and more powerful if we make doers
(what Williams calls characters) the subjects of
our sentences and if we make actions the verbs
of our sentences.
Make the important actions the verbs of
your sentence.
The director completed a review of the
data.
Vs.
The director reviewed the data.
Discovery is a noun rather than a verb.
Resistance is a noun rather than a verb.
Reaction is a noun rather than a verb.
Flying is a noun rather than a verb.
Repair is used as a noun instead of a verb
In all the last instances, an action has been
changed into a noun. This is called
nomilization (“nounalization”).
Notice when you have nominalizations in
your sentences and see if you can revise
the sentence so the noun becomes a verb
Any nomilazations?
Change any actions (often found in
nomilizations) to verbs
The outsourcing of high-tech work to Asia by
corporations means the loss of jobs for many
Americans.
The problem was the topic of our discussion
 Your
sentences are more concrete and thus
more powerful (nominalization results in
abstract, vague nouns)
 Your sentences will be shorter and thus more
direct since they will be free of unnecessary
verbiage.
 You sentences will tell a more coherent story.
 Instead
of circling nomilizations, you
might try circling all your to be verbs (is,
are, were, be was seems).
 They can produce short powerful,
declarative sentences, but since linking
verbs function as an = sign, often they
aren’t the most elegant choice.
There are thirty women who are registered for
the door prize.
Thirty women registered for the door prize.
There is one more store I have to go to
before I drive home.
One crucial scene that appears in both
films is Joan of Arc’s burning at the stake