To understand the difference between a good adverb and a bad adverb, consider these two sentences: “She smiled happily” and “She smiled sadly.” Which one works best? The first seems weak because “smiled” contains the meaning of “happily.” On the other hand, “sadly” changes the meaning.

1. Verbs fall into three categories: active, passive, and forms of the verb to be. Review your writing and circle verb

“Why should I get writer’s block?” asked the mischievous Roger Simon. “My father never got truck driver’s block.”

That’s the writing tool: use passive verbs to call attention to the receiver of the action.

Read Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and study emphatic word order. 2. With a pencil in hand, read an essay you admire. Circle the first and last words in each paragraph. 3. Do the same for recent examples of your work. Revise sentences so that powerful and interesting words, which may be hiding

who traffic in words. To

Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style advises the writer to “place emphatic words in a sentence at the end,” an example of its own rule. The most emphatic word appears at “the end.” Application of this tool will improve your prose in a flash.

Strong verbs create action, save words, and reveal the players.

forms with a pencil. In the margins, categorize each verb. 2. Convert passive and to be verbs into the active. For example, “It was her observation that” can become “She observed.” 3. In your own work and in the newspaper, search for verb qualifiers and see what happens when you cut them. 4. Experiment with both voice and tense. Find a passage you