Hidden verbs: the quiet bloat in government writing
'You must make an application.' Three words where one would do: apply.
That's a nominalisation — a verb dressed up as a noun, propped up by a second verb doing no work at all. Make a decision. Undertake a review. Conduct an investigation. Reach an agreement. Provide assistance. Each one buries the action inside a noun ending in -tion, -ment, -ance or -sion. Then it hires 'make', 'undertake' or 'conduct' to stand in front.
Why it matters
Three things go wrong at once. The sentence gets longer, because hidden verbs travel with 'the', 'of' and 'an'. The grade climbs, because -tion nouns are long words and formulas punish long words. And the actor slips away: 'an assessment will be undertaken' no longer says who assesses. Hidden verbs and passive voice travel together. Find one and you'll usually find the other.
Why government writing is full of them
Nouns feel official. 'The provision of assistance to applicants' sounds like a function of the state. 'We help people apply' sounds like something a person does. Somewhere in that gap, a lot of public servants learnt that the noun version is the professional one. The Style Manual's plain language guidance says otherwise: choose the verb.
The un-hiding routine
The fix is mechanical, which is good news. Find the pattern: a working verb like make, take, give, conduct or undertake, followed by a noun ending in -tion, -sion, -ment, -ance or -ence. Then use the verb inside the noun:
make an application → apply
undertake a review → review
reach a decision → decide
conduct an investigation → investigate
give consideration to → consider
provide assistance to → help
One caution: not every -tion noun is hiding. 'The application form' is fine — the noun is doing real noun work. The tell is the empty verb in front of it.
Let a machine find the pattern
Because the pattern is mechanical, a checker can catch it. We built Confetti, which flags hidden verbs as you write and suggests the verb underneath. It checks reading grade, passive voice and Australian Government Style Manual rules at the same time — free, and entirely in your browser.
Un-hide the verbs and pages get shorter and scores drop. Sentences get back the thing government writing loses most often: someone doing something.
Photo by Gustavo Boaron on Unsplash.
Did this land?
I write these to be used, not just read. Tell me if this wouldn't work in your organisation, and why.