Writing tips for students and beginning writers. It's no frills because it relies on a teacher to add context verbally. Take it, bend it, shape it any way you want.

1. Seldom use very

2. Really

3. Mr. Gibbs’s pet peeve

4. Replace the following combinations of words with one defining word...

5. Very hungry

6. Really tired

7. Very curious

8. Really beautiful

9. Really gorgeous

10. Very impressed

11. Really interesting

12. Very strange

13. Really important

14. Very old

15. Really expensive

16. Very smelly

17. Really stupid

18. Very hot

19. Very cold

20. Really mean

21. Very happy

22. Really bad

23. Very silly

24. Very serious

25. Really sorry

26. Very good

27. Another way to save words and be more precise...

28. Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs.

29. There is nothing wrong with adjectives and adverbs, but

30. “ The adjective hasn’t been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.” -- Will Strunk

31. Replace the following combinations of words with one defining word...

32. Large dog

33. Huge tree

34. fast car

35. Nice person

36. Tall flower

37. Huge fire

38. Long knife

39. Giant house

40. Tall building

41. Foot protection

42. Dead body

43. Heavy rain

44. Icy rain

45. Grown calf

46. Moved slowly

47. Ran quickly

48. Flew quickly

49. Asked sheepishly

50. Worked laboriously

51. Fell noisily

52. Fell slowly

53. Fell suddenly

54. Talked quietly

55. Laughed loudly

56. Another way to improve writing clarity is to...

57. Tell what it is, not what it is not.

58. Replace the following negatives by removing “not”

59. Not on time

60. Not honest

61. Not remembered

62. Not nice

63. Not a pretty sight

64. Not a good day

65. Not looking forward to it

66. Did not pay attention

67. Did not have much confidence in

68. Did not feel comfortable

69. Not unhappy

70. Not ungrateful

71. Not interesting

72. Not working

73. Not willing

74. Not a problem

75. Not a big deal

76. Not for children

77. Not outside

78. Not awake

79. Not for sale

80. Not in our lifetime

81. Not sure

82. O.K. That’s enough

83. The end