From the course: Writing in Plain English (2016)

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Use strong verbs

Use strong verbs

From the course: Writing in Plain English (2016)

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Use strong verbs

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- And let the chopping continue to get rid of camouflaged verbs. First, let's quickly review the verb part of speech. My Grammar Fundamentals course delves into verb use. The specific verb we're going to work with is the action verb. Just as its name says, it shows action. Hop, run, develop, consider, continue, and the verb is the strongest word in the sentence. In fact, "Go!" is a complete sentence. It's a command with an understood subject, you. The verb is the only part of speech that can stand alone as a complete sentence. The impact or strength of your sentence revolves around that strong verb. So how do we camouflage, hide, disguise, or conceal that verb? We turn it into a noun form. Rather than "continue," we write "in continuation of," "in consideration of," rather than "consider." Or, "make an application for," rather than "apply." And why would we want to camouflage it? I'm not sure of that answer. But my guess is that some writers might think "in continuation of" sounds…

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