第49页 | 300 Days of Better Writing | 阅读 ‧ 电子书库

Day 49: Organize ideas into large topics.

Once you have identified your central idea, the next step is to organize your ideas in large groups, each group about one subtopic.

Create categories for your major ideas, and label each category with one or two words. Then list the individual ideas for each category.Basically, what you are doing here is ensuring that related ideas are grouped together.

We have often worked on documents that introduce one topic, and then discuss another before providing more information about the first topic. The document is disorganized and hard to understand. When this tip is used, the entire document will be easier to follow and understand.

Day 50: Replace weak verbs with action verbs.

First, let’s define our terms. An action verb represents an action that can be viewed or performed. A weak verb is, simply, the opposite of an action verb.

Examples of action verbs: perform, hold, state, create, and represent.

Examples of weak verbs: can, seem, exist, and feel (the mental activity). All to be verbs are weak verbs, especially when followed by an –ing verb. These include is, am, are, were, and was.

To strengthen your writing, revise your sentences to replace weak verbs with action verbs. This is especially important when the main verb is weak, as in this sentence. We can use the second sentence above as an example.

Weak verb use: “An action verb is a verb that represents an action.”
Action verb use: “An action verb represents an action.”

This concept confuses many people, so I’ll provide another example.

Weak verb use: “The novelist was considering writing a new book in his series.”
Action verb use: “The novelist considered writing a new book in his series.”

Sentences using action verbs state the information directly and concisely, and they give the reader a mental image, which makes them more engaging.

You won't be able to do this with every sentence, nor should you. However, be aware of how frequently you use weak verbs and limit them to the extent possible.