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Tuesday, May 22, 2012

24 lazy, meaningless verbs to ban | Laura Hale Brockway, Ragan.com

A common problem with corporate writing is that it’s full of lazy, meaningless verbs. Utilize, implement, leverage—these words litter our writing and weaken our message. ...

The verb is the powerhouse of your sentence. Choose clear, active verbs instead of throwaway ones. I hereby call for a ban on the following verbs from corporate writing, press releases, social media, and websites. Try these alternatives instead.
Good advice there from Brockway. Her list provides strong alternatives to replace the listed weak verbs.

If you want still more suggestions to make your writing easier to read and understand, check out Garbl's Concise Writing Guide. This free guide provides alternatives to overstated, pompous words; wordy, bureaucratic phrases; and verbose, sometimes amusing redundant phrases:

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