Don’t let zombies haunt your texts!

Writers in the United Nations and other international organizations tend to overuse “zombie” nouns – nouns with more than three or more syllables, often ending in -tion or -ment. The nouns often go together with prepositions, making the text sound flat and difficult to read. If we change some of them into verbs, the text will sound more dynamic.

Examples with zombies and prepositions underlined

Find and bold the zombie nouns and prepositions. See if you can replace some of them with verbs. Different solutions may include using a gerund, doing some rephrasing, or making a compound noun.

1. 1. During the initial phase of designing the objectives, awareness was brought of the need to monitor how well the issue raised was impacting the operations and the structure of the committee.
   
   
2. 2. After the installation of the solar system, the facility now has access to an uninterrupted electricity supply.
   
   
3. 3. The incumbent is expected to support the establishment of a partnership for integrated disease surveillance (IDS) and to develop a comprehensive package for IDS implementation in the Eastern Mediterranean region. This role requires extensive engagement with various stakeholders.
   
   
4. 4. Substantial progress has been made in the implementation of the strategic activities of the national programme, including raising public awareness and provision of Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) through 67 centres.

Answer key

1. 1. During the initial phase of designing the objectives, awareness was brought of the need to we became aware that we needed to monitor how well the issue raised was impacting the operations and the structure of the committee.
   
   
2. 2. A solar system having been installed, the facility now has access to an uninterrupted electricity supply. 
   
   
3. 3. The incumbent is expected to support the establishment of establishing a partnership for integrated disease surveillance (IDS) and to develop a comprehensive package for IDS implementation to implement IDS in the Eastern Mediterranean region. This role requires extensive engagement with  engaging extensively with various stakeholders.
   
   
4. 4. Substantial progress has been made in implementation of in implementing the strategic activities of the national programme, including raising public awareness and provision of providing Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) through 67 centres.

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Carol Waites (PhD)
Email: carolswritingtips@gmail.com
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Presentation/editing by Christina O’Shaughnessy (editor)
https://worldwidewriting.org/