When reading, our mind is looking to understand what is going on. This ‘what’ can be ‘who is doing what’ or covers ‘what is happening’, such as a ‘report details the findings’. The who or what is the nominal group, which is a group of words describing a head noun.
In a recent writing workshop it became evident that understanding the role of your nouns is important. If your nouns are not clear, most likely your reader cannot understand your message. We asked workshop participants to find the nouns describing the ‘what’ in their work documents; this step enabled them to see how long their noun groups were. The next step was to make the description of the ‘what’ more concise (cutting out the words that did not add any value).
As your reader wants to know what is happening or what they need to do, that information is generally in a nominal group – the words describing the ‘who’ or ‘what’. Let’s look at a noun: information.
Step 1. with a determiner (a/ the) the information
Step 2. describing the kind of information the latest information
Step 3. adding more details the latest information on the company merger
By adding the description, a writer can be specific – a great way to convey details. However, check the length of your noun groups by reviewing the length of your descriptions. Your reader wants to be able to understand the ‘what’ or topic that you are writing about. Do not hide your message in lengthy complex noun groups.
Next, by building a message with noun groups, a writer can establish a flow of information. The flow or links are principally encoded in the nominal groups, and that relates to the coherence of the message.
As a writer, make sure that you know how to identify the ‘what’ and ‘who’ in your writing. Aim not to confuse your reader by writing long-winded nominal groups such as: the re-establishment of the vegetation cover of a site by the use of nursery grown plant stock instead of naturally germinating native plants (see Skopal & Herke, 2017, p. 145).
Skopal, D. P. & Herke, M. (2017). Public discourse syndrome: reformulating for clarity. Text & Talk, 37 (1), 141–164, doi: 10.1515/text-2016-0041.
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