Page 144 - How to write effective business English your guide to excellent professional communication by Fiona Talbot

Practical conventions and common confusions 133

use the active voice in business writing. But there are other reasons
why active writing is better. The following, very typical, example of
passive writing in meetings notes demonstrates this: ‘A decision
was taken to take the matter further.’
When readers see a sentence such as this, they can be utterly
confused. Who took the decision? In operational terms, what
happens next? We can’t know from the context. We need more in-
formation – yet experience shows people often don’t go on to ask
for that information.

Nominalization

Many business writers mistakenly think they must embellish or
over-complicate their writing! Even the most effective speaker can
seem to feel that to write simply and clearly is a sign of weakness.
Sometimes people can’t break away from thinking that high
word count and complex vocabulary signifies ‘we’re cleverer than
you’. Historically, intellectual, academic writing, for example, uses
nominalization, in which nouns are used in place of verbs. This
may be useful in writing about concepts. But in business it can
seem pompous and outdated. We saw in Chapter 5 how verbs can
create vibrant content – but nominalizations do the complete op-
posite. These examples show the nominalization first, followed by
the clearer verb form:
give clarification on this = clarify this;

in recognition of the fact = recognizing that;
during the installation process = when installing;
we are involved with negotiations = we are negotiating.

The verb form gives more energy: we know that something is hap-
pening in each case and that people are involved. With nominaliza-
tion, users appear to hide behind language. That’s rarely a great
idea in business.