How Dead Verbs are Killing your Writing

Like zombies, dead verbs are lurking in your fiction, creative non-fiction, work, and school writing — and it's time to eliminate them. Take this short course, which will help you understand the importance of verbs, from the author of Clear, Precise, Direct: Strategies for Writing (Oxford University Press, 2015). 

Verbs are the lifeblood of writing, but some verbs are better than others. In this course, learn which verbs are most effective, which are weak, and which are fully dead and contributing nothing to your writing. 

Introducing more good verbs to your writing can help avoid two things readers dislike: generalizations and a lack of forward movement. 

The objectives of this course are to help students understand the importance of the strong, concrete verb to the English language sentence, recognize the problems of dead verbs, and apply the lesson to their own writing. No prerequisite knowledge or materials are required. 

• Overview
• Beginnings
• Concrete Verbs
• Weak Verbs
• Dead Verbs
• Dead Verbs — Consequences