First Round Revision

Seek out the Killer Be's

am - is - are - was - were - be - been - being

and the Auxiliary (Linking) Verbs

can/could, shall/should, will/would, have-has-had-may-might-must

As I said in class, these are perfectly good words, but they often signal mushy language, mushy thinking.  Look for ways to recast the sentences where these words are lurking, and utilize stronger, active, visual, MUSCULAR verbs.

NOUNS

Use specific nouns!  Why say "tree" when you can say "sugarpine"?  Learn the names of the things in beautiful world around you, and quit writing like a caveman:  "I saw a big dog."

Dreck - yucky words

awesome - bad - cool - fine - good - great - happy - interesting - look - nice - really - said - so - very basically - seems like, sort of, kind of...you get the picture.  English teachers call these the "dead word" list.
Check out #9 on this page, Top Ten Mistakes in College Writing.


Please avoid cliches!

That's it for now.  If you just work on these small changes, your writing will improve!