Nominalisation

Giving compressed things interesting qualities

Another useful property of 'things' is that they have qualities.

What 'thing' has what qualities in this snippet about a treaty with the Vikings?

The Viking response to the treaty was considered, and worrying.

Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings(2020)

'The Viking response' is the 'thing', and it has two qualities: 'considered' (given thought, intentional), and 'worrying'.

We can change up those qualities to describe the Viking response in any way we like. Let's do that now.

The Viking response to the treaty was terrible, and swift.

The Viking response to the treaty was slow, and ineffective.

Write your own version, giving the Viking response any qualities you like.

Qualities can also be inserted inside a nominalisation. What quality does the relations between Louis's sons have in this snippet?

The turbulent relations between Louis's three surviving sons, barely kept in check during the emperor's declining years, boiled over on his death.

Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings(2020)

The writer, Neil Price, has done something pretty neat in this snippet.

The quality 'turbulent' and the action 'boiled over' work together to cast the relationship between Louis's sons as something hot and contained and ready to explode, like water in a kettle, or lava in a volcano. Creating these kinds of metaphors can make nominalisations (which are usually abstract and vague) feel a lot more vivid.

Let's write our own version of this snippet, changing the quality of the sons' relations (as well as the rest of the snippet to suit our new version of history).

The extravagant relations between Louis's three surviving sons, barely kept in check during the emperor's declining years, became even more excessive on his death.

The flourishing relations between Louis's three surviving sons, nurtured by the emperor's patience and generosity, withered after his death.

When writing your version, keep the nominalisation (the relations between Louis's three surviving sons) the same, but feel free to change up the rest of the sentence to fit whatever quality you've decided to use.

For an extra challenge, try using the quality and action/s to create a vivid metaphor, like in the original snippet and our second example.

Write your own version, giving the sons' relationship a different quality.
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