Getting better at Word Choice

1. Read out loudGetting
Better at
Word
Choice
Attack verbs first
Cut back uselessness
Careful Thesaurus
Balance
Kill cliches
Choosing Words

2. Getting
Better at
Word
Choice
Attack verbs first
Cut back uselessness
Careful Thesaurus
Balance
Kill cliches

3. Seek out
and
destroy
to be
verbs.
Pilar is a great
artist.
Pilar paints with
skill and
sensitivity.

4. Seek out
and
destroy
to be
verbs.
am
is
are
was
were
being
been
be

5. Seek out
and
destroy
to be
verbs.
The playground
was like a trash
dump.
The children were
playing
foursquare.

6. What would
be a
better verb
choice?
Bill ate his tasty
lunch.

7. What would
be a
better verb
choice?
The thief took a
new watch, and
then ran away.

8. What would
be a
better verb
choice?
The cat went to
the living room
and slept in the
sun.

9. What
should
go?
He dropped out of
school on account
of the fact that it
was necessary for
him to help
support his family.

10. What
should
go?
He was really late
to his English
class due to the
fact that he had to
finish his math
test.

11. What
should
go?
During the time
when I lived in
South Carolina, it
was my intention
to go to college in
Florida.

12. How do you
kill this
cliche?
My English
teacher is as
old as the hills.

13. How do you
kill this
cliche?
James Bond
defused the bomb
in the nick of time.

14. How do you
kill this
cliche?
After recovering
from my cold, I
was as weak as a
kitten.

15. Use a
thesaurus
to improve
this.
The clown walked
behind the kid
who did not notice
him.
powerthesaurus.com

16. Use a
thesaurus
to improve
this.
Aden walked up
the mountain until
he was tired.

17. Use a
thesaurus
to improve
this.
The pigeon
attacked the
spilled garbage.

18. Too
Much?
His skin, white despite the faint flush from
yesterday’s hunting trip, literally sparkled,
like thousands of tiny diamonds were
embedded in the surface. He lay perfectly
still in the grass, his shirt open over his
sculpted, incandescent chest, his scintillating
arms bare. His glistening, pale lavender lids
were shut, though of course he didn’t sleep. A
perfect statue, carved in some unknown
stone, smooth like marble, glittering like
crystal.
—Stephanie Meyer Twilight

19. Too
Much?
The young, precocious
child of elementary
school age was
commanded by his
endearing and loving
mother to put on a
change of clothes.

20. Look for
Balance
The young, precocious
child of elementary
school age was
commanded by his
endearing and loving
mother to put on a
change of clothes.

21. Look for
Balance
The young child was
commanded by his
loving mother to put
on a change of
clothes.

22. Look for
Balance
The loving mother
commanded the
young child to put on
a change of clothes.

23. Too
Much?
He lumbered up the
crooked and creaking
stairs to his massive
wardrobe that could
rival Narnia’s.

24. Look for
Balance
He lumbered up the
crooked and creaking
stairs to his massive
wardrobe that could
rival Narnia’s.

25. “You can use the power
of words to bury meaning
or to excavate it.”
― Rebecca Solnit,
Men Explain Things to
Me