Provide Energy to Your Writing

After having composed all thoughts and having set them down in your "final draft," review your essay or paper and try to eliminate the following words from your writing: get, do, make, have, be. Eliminate all their forms as well: get, getting, got, gotten; do, doing, did, done, etc. Note, eliminating all the forms of be: am, are, is, was, were, be, been, being is perhaps not possible, nor desirable.

Inserting action verbs, where possible, will provide your writing verve (force, energy, zing). Allow get, do, make, have, and be to function as helping verbs which "help" the main verb (notional verb) do it's work.

Lacking energy: Fitzgerald made his reputation about Americans who got rich after World War II.

Energetic: Fitzgerald's stories emphasized those Americans who achieved great wealth after World War II.