Dense, hard-to-follow writing obfuscates complex subject matter, but writers can improve their ability to communicate complex topics with clear writing that is easily understood on a first read. Science and medical  writing often contain grammatical constructs, including nominalisations, which require the reader to perform “mental gymnastics” to discover the actors and the action of the sentence. Reading for   nominalisations and rescuing the verbs that they hide reveals the action. The writing becomes more engaging, easier to understand, and more likely to capture the reader’s interest. Here I discuss how to recognise and edit nominalisations, concluding the article with some short sentences for practice.