Use Active Verbs to Spark up Your Press Releases

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Good press releases must adhere to the rules of any other writing.  You write so the reader will read.  Laziness in writing is settling for overused verbs that are easy but totally boring.  Active verbs add sparkle to your writing, in any form.  The verb “to be” is overused ‘ad nauseam.’  i.e.  “I am, he is, you are, they are, we are.”  Search around for quicker and slicker verbs such as:

Instead of:  “He is happy” Use:  “He glows”

Instead of:  “They are fishing” Use:  “They throw lines”

Instead of:  “He ran fast” Use:  “He hustled”

Instead of:  “The board was creaking” Use:  “The board creaked”

The above are simple examples of how you can choose sparkling verbs to pepper your sentences, adding texture and spice.  Here’s how you can you do it yourself.

Ten Easy Ways to Find Zestier Verbs

1.  Read, read, and read!  The Sunday paper fairly blooms with succinct verbs because of all the human-interest stories and special features.

2.  Skim your daily papers for feature stories; they usually frame better verbs in their picture stories.

3.  Save and scan your Magazines!  Articles frequently fill space with active verbs and the old issues are as good as the new for this purpose.

4.  Read such literary masters as Feodor Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens, Henry James and William Shakespeare.  Just skimming some of the works of these gifted writers may produce some priceless pearls of language, particularly verbs.

5.  Read poetry.  Such wordsmiths as Dylan Thomas, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe and Elizabeth Barrett Browning rose above the mundane in their use of verbs.  Most poetry, for that matter, affords a view of unique word usage.

6.  Check your thesaurus and dictionary for new ideas.  A newly published book called “The Oxford English Dictionary for Writers” is a good, new source.

7.  Cover the advertisements in newspapers and magazines; they always contain some catchy verbs.

8.  Pay attention to conversations around you, on television and in films.  Carry a small notebook so you can notate unusual verbs you hear.

9.  Do crossword puzzles and other word games such as scrabble, acrostics and charades.

10.  Check Internet ads for appealing verbs.