Style Lesson 3: Actions

Style Lesson 3: ActionsThis chapter focuses on VERBS 1Sentences are storiesWilliams suggests that writers think of sentences as stories with characters (subjects) and actions (verbs).

Important definitionsSimple subjectWhole subjectCharacterActionVerb The evidence that you offer is not reliable.

Subject verb = character actionBack 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/character action)

Nouns But the doer (character) isnt always the subject of a sentence. Any noun can be the subject of the sentence.Janes jumping went on and on. Jumping went = subject verbJane is the doer (or character) but jumping is the subject of the sentence. VerbsThe main action isnt always the main verb of a sentence. Often the action has been changed into a noun.

Janes jumping went on and on.

Jumps becomes jumping and went becomes the main verb of the sentence.

Back to elementary schoolWilliams suggests we return to the idea that 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.Principle 1Make your main character the subject of your sentence.

More on this principle in Lesson 4Principle 2Make the important actions the verbs of your sentence.

The director completed a review of the data.Vs.

The directed reviewed the data.

NominalizationsFirst drafts often have important actions as nouns

Often this action has been changed into a noun. Nominalization (or nounialization) is a noun derived from an action.

(It is also a noun derived from an adjective. Careless becomes carelessness. More on this problem in Lesson4.)

NominalizationsActions become nouns:

Discover becomes discovery.Resist becomes resistance.React becomes reaction.

NominalizationsCharacter + actions become nouns (gerund):

She flies becomes her flying.We sing becomes our singing.

Nominalization

Some verbs are, without any change, positioned as nouns:

Hope (verb) becomes hope (noun)Result (verb) becomes result (noun)Repair (verb) becomes repair (noun)The outsourcing of high-tech work to Asia by corporations means the loss of jobs for many Americans.What is the simple subject and verb of this sentence?

The outsourcing of high-tech work to Asia by corporations means the loss of jobs for many Americans.

Ignoring introductory phrases, underline the first eight words in a sentence.

a) Do you have an abstract noun (especially a nominalization) as the simple subject?b) Do you have 6 or 7 words before you get to a verb?

Yes means your sentence may need revising.The outsourcing of high-tech work to Asia by corporations means the loss of jobs for many Americans.Decide who your main characters are Decide what actions these main characters perform (look especially to those nominalizations, those actions that became nouns)

Main characters: corporations, Americans

Actions of these characters: outsource, looseNew sentence parts: 1. Corporations outsource high-tech work to Asia

2. Many Americans loose jobs

3) Use conjunctions (because, if, when, although, why, how, whether, that, since, so long as, provided that) to make the logic of the relationships clear

PracticeThe problem was the topic of our discussion.Patterns to watch forNominalizations with empty verbs or bland verbs such as to be (is, are, were) to seem, to have, to do Nominalizations following There is and There areMultiple nominalizations in a sentence

The results of making actions the verb of the sentence: 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. The logic of the relationship of the ideas will be more clear.You sentences will tell a more coherent story.Useful NominalizationsWilliams does thinks some nouns derived from verbs do useful work and shouldnt be rewritten. 37-38