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Like all parts of speech, verbs are strongest when
they are precise and concrete. For verbs, "concrete" is the quality
of expressing real movement in the real world--or in fiction, the
world we accept as real. In other words, strong verbs tell us
exactly what is done and that is a real action.

Verbs have a natural hierarchy, from strongest to weakest:

• Doing (strongest)
• Saying
• Thinking or feeling
• Being done to
• Being (weakest)
• Jim was sick.
• Jim was being made sick by the clam dip.
• Jim felt sick.
• "I feel sick," Jim said.
• Jim vomited on the Persian rug.

The strongest verbs express actions in the real
world. The weaker verbs express less real-world action. At the
bottom are the being verbs which express either no action or very
little.

As an exercise, revise a couple of pages (about
500 words) of your writing so that verbs which are not already
doing or saying verbs are raised at least one level in the
hierarchy wherever this is possible.

At their best, adverbs spice up a verb or adjective. At their worst, they express a meaning already contained in it:

• "The blast completely destroyed the church office."
• "The cheerleader gyrated wildly before the screaming fans."
• "The accident totally severed the boy's arm."
• "The spy peered furtively through the bushes."
• The blast destroyed the church office.
• The cheerleader gyrated before the screaming fans.
• The accident severed the boy's arm.
• The spy peered through the bushes.
• Look through the newspaper for any word that ends in �ly. If it is an adverb, delete it with your pencil and read the new sentence aloud.
• Do the same for your last three essays, stories, or papers. Circle the adverbs, delete them, and decide if the new sentence is better or worse.