Writing journeys
30 MIN READ
Or, why I love vigorous verbs and why you should too
One of the easiest ways to add clarity and punch to your writing is to pick stronger verbs. No part of a sentence is more important than the verb – not nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. If you write with strong active verbs – what I call ‘vigorous verbs’ – your writing will be clearer, more concise, and more engaging. The best part is that, unlike other writing improvements, improving your verbs is easy; you can learn what you need almost overnight.
Verbs are so important that, whenever I write something, I do a special round of revision just for verbs. Verbs are crucial, and easy to fix.
These are free ‘PhD’ tips. I learned about verbs in graduate school while studying for a PhD. I was lucky: my advisor cared a lot of writing. He took the time – probably to make his reading easier – to point out how important verbs are and how easy to fix.
What a difference it made! My writing improved almost overnight. I was shocked at the difference. So now you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars for a fancy graduate program; you can get those skills right here, right now. And you, too, can improve your writing overnight.
The most surprising tip is to avoid the 'to be' verb – is, are, was, were – as a sentence’s main verb. This tip goes hand-in-hand with avoiding the passive voice (except in special circumstances. See the box.)
Why are verbs so important? Not just for style, but for content: They will make your writing clearer and more concise, more punchy. They will make it more engaging and more powerful. In short, more vigorous!
Sometimes Nepalis object to vigorous verbs. “That’s too direct, too rude,” they say. Instead, they want the passive voice. Maybe that’s true in Nepali but in English, the consensus is to use active voice, except in rare exceptions (See box.)
One of my favorite stories about vigorous verbs revolves around an American undergrad who was doing a semester-long history research paper (on aviation’s environmental impact, I think). After he had assembled his paragraphs and revised them several times, I had him do a special “verb only” revision. He had to identify the action in each sentence and find the best verb to describe that action.
This did not mean adding fancy verbs. He could pick any verb besides to be, represent, became, and include. And he had to use the active voice – no passive voice.
The next week he came back to my office. “I was so amazed,” he said. “As I fixed verbs, lots of other words dropped out the sentence.”
I loved this response. It’s so true. Strong clear verbs make your writing more concise.
“Now,” I told him, “I want you to take another look. How does changing the verb change the rest of the sentence?
He reported back the next week: “People reappeared. Fixing the verb means figuring out who is doing what, finding the ‘who.’ Now the paper focuses on people and what they do.”
Exactly.
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$50 a day or $500 a day?
"A style that consists mainly of passive constructions will sap the reader's energy."
– Zinsser, On Writing Well, 111.
Verbs can make or break your writing, so consider them carefully in every sentence.
– Constance Hale, writing expert
"Use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb. The difference between an active-verb style and a passive-verb style – in clarity and vigor – is the difference between life and death for a writer."
– Zinsser, On Writing Well, 111.
"Most adverbs are unnecessary. You will clutter your sentence and annoy the reader if you choose a verb that has a specific meaning and then add an adverb that carries the
same meaning. Don't tell us that the radio "blared loudly" – "blare" connotes loudness. Don't write that someone clenched his teeth tightly – there's no other way to clench teeth. Again and again in careless writing, strong verbs are weakened by redundant adverbs."
– Zinsser, On Writing Well, 112.
Adverbs are a sign that you've used the wrong verb.
– Annie Dillard
Often a dynamic verb lurks in a clunky noun, and by excavating it we can perk up the prose. Why write take into consideration instead of consider?
– Constance Hale
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If the nails are weak, your house will collapse. If your verbs are weak and your syntax is rickety, your sentences will fall apart.
– William Zinsser
Root out all the "to be" verbs in your prose and bludgeon them until dead. No "It was" or "they are" or "I am." Don't let it be, make it happen.
– Barbara Kingsolver
“This is not the time to be passive. This is the time to shape, sculpt, paint, participate… the time to get sweaty, to get dirty, to fall in love, to forgive, to forget, to hug, to kiss… this is the time to experience, participate and live your life as a verb.”
– Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
I recommend you start a similar list! Remember: vigorous doesn’t mean fancy. Short verbs are good. Special thanks to Vikrant Singh for help with this list.
Example sentence
"The toughest issue in Nepali politics in recent years has been reaching a solution on the demarcation of federal boundaries that is acceptable to both the ruling parties and the Madhesi parties. This is the key issue that has continued to bedevil Nepali politics ever since the first Constituent Assembly.”
Source: 'Oddly Consistent', The Kathmandu Post, October 31, 2016.
Example sentence
“Thread and button always bind things together, and we need something just like that – a common goal – to bind us all together.”
Source: Samikshya Bhattarai, 'White is the most ambiguous colour', The Kathmandu Post, 7 September, 2017
Example sentence
"Rather, it was the nonchalance with which the national political machinery got bogged down in that bane of our country – non stop politicking.”
Source: Deepak Thapa, 'Out to lunch', The Kathmandu Post, April 2, 2020.
Example sentence
"This was the week when many of the president’s pernicious deceptions boomeranged on him.”
Source: Maureen Dowd, 'Reality bursts the Trumpworld bubble', New York Times, October 3, 2020.
Example sentence
"The story allows us to experience the vulnerability of people who live their lives barely shielded against the elements. ... The characters in the story battle with the perennial question that still confronts a large section of humanity."
Source: Shradha Ghale, 'The lives of others', The Kathmandu Post, March 10, 2018
Example sentence:
“To curb the coronavirus pandemic, the government announced a lockdown on March 24, 2020, that paralysed almost all sectors”
Source: Nunuta Rai, 'Covid-19 has killed thousands in Nepal, but a lot more are killing themselves during the pandemic', OnlineKhabar, June 8 2021
Example sentence
“Nepal’s hospitals have been crammed to capacity or beyond for the last month.”
Source: Irwin Loy, 'Nepal’s COVID-19 crisis swells as global aid funding slows', The New Humanitarian, May 31 2021.
Example sentence
"‘The long march out of Burma’ recounts the harrowing journey of a Gurkha family fleeing the Japanese advance during the Second World War. Each of these stories is firmly rooted in history and explores questions of identity and belonging even as it gauges the depth of individual suffering."
Source: Shradha Ghale, 'The lives of others', The Kathmandu Post, March 10, 2018
Example sentence
"‘The long march out of Burma’ recounts the harrowing journey of a Gurkha family fleeing the Japanese advance during the Second World War. Each of these stories is firmly rooted in history and explores questions of identity and belonging even as it gauges the depth of individual suffering."
Source: Shradha Ghale, 'The lives of others', The Kathmandu Post, March 10, 2018
Example sentence
“Nepal’s development gains could, however, be halted or even reversed by the geologic and climate change-induced hazards.”
Source: United Nations Country Team, “United Nations Development Assistance Framework for Nepal 2018-2022,” December 2017.
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Example sentence
"The media narrative of Dalits as just being victims of caste hierarchy ignores many inspiring and powerful stories of resistance."
Source: Sarita Pariyar, 'The media’s portrayal of Dalits is cncomplete: Narratives of Dalits as just being victims of caste hierarchy ignores many stories of resistance', The Kathmandu Post, March 12, 2020.
Example sentence
"Attending a university with thousands of international students immersed me into an international community with mystifying but rich cultures and a variety of strange ‘Englishes’"
Source: Kunti Adhikary, 'Multiple realities', The Kathmandu Post, February 10, 2018.
Example sentence:
“After the first burst in mid-June, Central and eastern Nepal are now being lashed by a second wave, causing landslides to block the country’s arterial highways.”
Source: Amit Machamasi, 'Monsoon submerges Kathmandu environs', Nepali Times, July 9, 2021.
Contributor: Poonam Subedi
Example sentence:
“It plunged national politics into turmoil and the five-year-old Constitution into uncertainty, and raised questions about the haste with which the President approved Oli’s recommendation.”
Source: Yubaraj Ghimire, 'Explained: What is at stake in Nepal’s political crisis?', The Indian Express, December 29, 2020
Example sentence
"The tiger pounced on 52-year-old Nandakala Thapa along the Amreni-Chisapani stretch of East-West Highway that traverses the park."
Source: Chandan Kumar Mandal, "Tiger Terror Continues In and Around Protected Areas," Kathmandu Post, January 3, 2020.
Example sentence
"The story allows us to experience the vulnerability of people who live their lives barely shielded against the elements. ... The characters in the story battle with the perennial question that still confronts a large section of humanity."
Source: Shradha Ghale, 'The lives of others', The Kathmandu Post, March 10, 2018
Example sentence
"In the latest incident, a tiger from Bardiya National Park snatched a woman off a moving motorcycle while she was riding pillion with her son on Friday night."
Source: Chandan Kumar Mandal, 'Tiger terror continues in and around protected areas', The Kathmandu Post, January 3, 2020.
Example sentence
"The ‘establishment faction’, led by Rana, wanted a departure from the party’s support of the monarchy and the Hindu agenda, citing that the public had lost faith in the Palace after the 2005 coup. This led a faction led by Thapa, a long-time confidant of the monarchy, to splinter and form the new party, RPP-Nepal."
Source: Binod Ghimire, 'Year ender 2016: The rise of the right', The Kathmandu Post, December 29, 2016.
Example sentence:
“Within 45 minutes of setting off, bird guide Hari Bhandari had spotted 20 species: Greater Barbet, Blue-throated Barbet, Blue-naped Pita, Himalayan Griffon, White-throated Fantail, Rufus Gorgeted Flycatcher, Crimson Sunbird, and many more.”
Source: Kunda Dixit, 'No tiger, no mountain', Nepali Times, February 7, 2018
Example sentence :
“The quake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing at least eight people, and another five in Tibet, officials and reports say.”
Source: 'Nepal earthquake: Hundreds die, many feared trapped', BBC, 25th April, 2015.
Example Sentence
"According to the locals, some of them had gone to unearth old sal trees buried over the years along the banks of Aurahi stream.”
Source: Santosh Singh, 'Locals of Musahar settlement in Dhanusha and police clash over timber logging", The Kathmandu Post, September 11, 2020.
Example sentence
"We were by then being engulfed in the drama that had begun to unfold within the ruling party.”
Source: Deepak Thapa, 'Out to lunch', The Kathmandu Post, April 2, 2020.
Example sentence
“Lama is able to trace his lineage back to the “60 ghare Tamangs” — the 60 Tamang families who have lived around the Boudha stupa for generations. And in the many decades of his life, Lama, along with other old residents of the area, has witnessed the gradual changes to the Boudha of his youth.``
Source: Minket Lepcha, “The changing nature of Boudha’s relationship with water,” Record Nepal, 28 June, 2021
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What are your favorite verbs and example sentences? Send them over (in the same format as above) to mitholekhai@gmail.com
For more writing tips, see:
Tom Robertson Tom Robertson, PhD, is an environmental historian who writes about Kathmandu and Nepali history. His Nepali-language video series on writing, 'Mitho Lekhai', is available on Youtube. His most recent article, 'No smoke without fire in Kathmandu’, appeared on March 5 in Nepali Times.
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