Hidden verbs

A hidden verb is an action turned into a noun and then propped up by a weak verb — 'carry out a review' instead of 'review' — which lengthens the sentence and drains the energy out of it.

They carried out an inspection of the building. The action in that sentence is inspect, and it is not the verb — it has been converted into the noun inspection, leaving carried out to do the grammatical work. Write They inspected the building and the sentence is shorter, faster, and says exactly the same thing.

The usual giveaways are the propping verbs: make, give, take, hold, conduct, carry out, perform, provide, reach. When one of those sits next to an abstract noun ending in -ion, -ment, -ance or -ity, there is almost always a live verb trapped inside. Reach a decision is decide. Provide assistance is help. Give consideration to is consider.

Grammarians call the noun form a nominalisation; the United States plain-language guidance calls the pattern a hidden verb, which is the more useful name because it tells you what to go looking for.

It is a line edit habit rather than a rule. The construction is occasionally the right one, usually when the noun is the subject under discussion — the inspection was a farce — but in narrative prose it is nearly always drag.