Trap 5: Converting Verbs Into Nouns

Trap 5: Converting Verbs Into Nouns

Here's something odd: For no apparent reason, people like to take perfectly good verbs and turn them into rather puny, ineffective nouns. For example, they convert:

• discuss into have a discussion

• meet with into hold a meeting

• act into take action

There are many more examples of this phenomenon. It's not a good idea, because most business writing is woefully short of strong verbs anyway. Taking the few good ones we have and turning them into nouns drains the vitality right out of prose. Avoid this tendency.