Today’s Writing Tip: Use Active Verbs
Sentence: Contemporary studies explore whether managers ARE ACTUALLY USING technology to connect with their teams effectively.
Edited Sentence: Contemporary studies explore whether managers ACTUALLY USE technology to connect with their teams effectively.
Explanation: Keeping verbs in active form is important to presenting clear, concise writing. Sometimes, writers use helping verbs and main verbs in their sentences when using just a main verb would suffice.
In the sample sentence above, the helping verb “are” is used with the verb “using;” the adverb “actually” interrupts the verb phrase. However, the helping verb isn’t needed to express the action of the sentence. Therefore, in the edited sentence, I eliminate the helping verb (are) and place the main verb in active form (use).
When editing your academic documents, be sure to use active verbs as much as possible to communicate ideas clearly.
Until next week, Happy Writing!!!
Dr. V Writing Coach-Editor-Speaker Author of I'm Not a Writer...I am Just in Graduate School (order your copy at https://www.amazon.com/Not-Writer-Just-Graduate-School/dp/1533392919)
Available in hard copy and on Kindle
