Strong Verbs

learn to make sentences more forceful by choosing strong verbs what's the big deal about strong verbs well if sentences were cars verbs would be the engine you can pass inspection with clunker that gets you from point to point but no one will want to ride along with you if your gilapy sputters and coughs along or if you can't drive faster than 25 mph in the same way your sentences can be grammatically correct and still not have enough power or excitement to keep your reader in the passenger seat and just as you can't make your car run smoother by changing the wiper blades or polishing the hubcaps you can't charge up your sentences by simply adding adjectives adverbs or nouns you have to work with verbs and they have to be forceful how do know if I'm choosing forceful verbs that's easy consider these two sentences about my dog mugs mugs is Messy eater mugs splatters his food all over the wall clearly the verb splatters packs bigger punch than the verb is it's more descriptive and it gives you something to Picture This example brings up an important Point always check to see if you overuse to be verbs is am are was were been when you say mugs is Messy eater your grammar is perfect but you waste an opportunity to say mugs gulps slurps sprays slobbers drools splashes drips drops and slings his food all over the place to be verbs help clarify many ideas so the goal isn't to eliminate them but rather to recognize when more emphatic verb would enhance your sentence so all need to do is check for overuse of to be verbs no other verbs can be weak as well here's good way to test the horsepower of your sentences first list every verb in your essay then ask yourself if these words alone would allow the reader to guess what topic you're writing about if they don't you may have some revising to do if your list of verbs includes dribble pass dunk shoot block jump foul charge and so on your reader will have clear sense that you were writing about what basketball and chances are if you are not using those kinds of verbs your paper will not hold your reader's interest can't other kinds of words like adjectives and adverbs make my paper forceful those kinds of words are important but not nearly as important as the verbs let's go back to our example many students recognize that this sentence could be stronger but they make serious mistake they ignore the verb the engine and waste energy polishing the hubcaps mugs is very Messy eater mugs is definitely very messy eater mugs is most definitely the most Messy eater know add all the intensifiers you want but very definitely and so on will never make that is as messy as drool and you can't get mugs to drool unless you focus on the verb what if can't think of any forceful verbs here's trick that every good writer uses when you proofread check to see if some of your verbs are dressed up in nouns clothing many times you'll find that the verb you want is hiding in the sentence is noun often with shun or if ending if your focus is on solving mugs eating problems make sure you describe that action with verb not noun don't say bigger bowl might be the solution to Mug's problem instead ask yourself if that shun word should be verb in this case it should because the change makes your sentence more direct and forceful bigger bowl might solve mugs problem remember avoid shun words unless you need them in many cases you can solve your writing Problems by changing the way you see your Solutions