Read “Verb Tense Consistency” and “Replacing To-Be Verbs,” in this module.
Then spend one hour improving your verbs: mark verbs that are boring, vague, wordy, or in the wrong tense, and replace them with verbs that are strong and precise. Focus only on verbs during this hour. You’ll still need to do other editing and proofreading (correcting typos and punctuation errors, running spell-check, smoothing transitions, etc.)
The “strong verb list” in this module can help. If you use a thesaurus, I highly recommend that you only choose verbs that you’re familiar with. Wrestling a word you don’t know how to use into your sentence can sap the energy, like the “6 Tools” essay explains.
Submit the paragraphs with new verbs here, before you turn in your final draft. You don’t have to submit the whole essay for this “better verbs” assignment–however much you managed to do in one hour. Mark the new verbs somehow–circle them, highlight them, put them in bold, or whatever.
In the before and after example in this model, I’ve shown a before and after paragraph. I circled boring verbs and underlined ones in the wrong tense. You only need to turn in the new version.
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