Why Active Verbs?
Writers often make lazy choices. We use generic all-purpose verbs such as been, be, had, have, were, was, and is. Especially in scientific journal articles, these verbs make encore appearances with more regularity than car commercials in a football game. Yet these “passive” words convey little. Even worse are the catch all “deal with” and “show” choices. I scream in frustration everytime I read another: “it has been thought by Schuckitelly that…” Why not try something more exciting, such as:”Schmuckitelly revealed”… Active verbs convey meaning as you describe work and ideas. As a rule, passive verbs show up most commonly in: • literature reviews, where your job describes work of others in concise, analytical terms. • describe your own experimental work, where you efficiently describe jobs completed. • present a thesis or objective statement, where you forecast information that will follow in the paper. • even as you refer to figures, tables or equations, where your job is to define
