List some weak verbs on the board or read an old Basal Reader where the pages abound with sentences like,   "The Boy went outside."    Talk about how verbs are action words.   Ask students to describe what you are doing. Hop across the room. Run across the room.  Skip across the room, then ask them what it would sound like if the writer just said.  "She went across the room."

      Now students get up in pairs and come up with new ways to move their bodies across the room. When you find a new way, write down the verb which describes it.    Later share the movements and the words.
Note:  If a student pair can't think of  a word to describe the action, the class can help.
         e-mail us your verb lists and we run them here..............

3-4     Said Is Dead Day.
         Shut up, he explained.
 One to revise dialogue is to come up with new verbs for the overused said.
 
     Make a list of stronger verbs to replace the word said in a scene. If you want start with the alphabet you can follow the letters of the alphabet.

        Example

              asked
              answered
              barked
              balled
              bellowed
              bantered
              carped
              called
              commented
              cajoled

 E-mail your students lists and we will post them here......
 

Step 2    Write alliterative sentences using your verbs.   Example " Carping crows coaxed and cajoled cautious cows..."

    E-mail your sentences and we will post them here....

After you have made your list try replacing a few saids in your stories.

5-8  Strong writing abounds with active verbs. One way to dig for verbs is to replace weak verbs and adverbs with an more descriptive verbs.  Practice by replacing two words with one strong verb.
 
  walked  slowly             better:  crept     tiptoed  etc
  talked low
  ran fast
  moved uncertainly
  sang loudly

 Go through your own writing and replace adverbial clauses with stronger verbs where appropriate.
 

9-12      Build your own Thesaurus

Often times in academic papers we get stuck using the same verbs over and over again in the same paper..   Here's an idea.  Create your own thesaurus at the back of your writers notebook by listing similar verbs for some of the most widely used  verbs in academic English.

shows
describes
interprets
defines
illustrates
imagines
analyses
combines