UWC Writing Workshop: Verbs
Duane Theobald: dtheobal@westga.edu
Here’s what your professors (and readers in general) want you to do:
Know what Make subjects and verbs
a verb is!
agree!
Use verbs
Don’t use the passive
you know!
voice to obscure your
ideas!
Use interesting
verbs!
Use the literary
present tense for
literary analysis!
Which of these is tricky for you? Any other verb-trickiness not listed here?
Why?
What do you do when verbs give you trouble?
AWR (A Writer’s Resource): pgs.486-504 can help!
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1. Know what a verb is!
The action of the subject…
…but not always an active-sounding word. Is-are-might-should-will-may and many other inactivesounding words are verbs (they are modal verbs, and are often followed by another verb. “He may go.”)
What the subject does or is.
Pickles come in several varieties—Dill pickles taste better than sweet pickles.—The difference between
dill pickles and sweet pickles should not be minimized. —Your favorite shoes fit well.—The day you
graduate will be joyful. —The book on the shelf wants me to read it.—Whatever she says makes
sense—Cupcakes delight most people who like sweets.—The stuff on my desk needs straightening up.
FIND THE VERB/VERB PHRASE:
First, find the subject. Then, ask…
_________________________________
Cupcakes delight most people who like sweets .
Subject: Cupcakes. What about them? They delight most people who like sweets. (note that “like” is
a verb but it’s not the action of the subject (cupcakes).
Find the verb/verb phrase:
1. She further highlights this notion when she worries if she belongs in her husband’s family.
2. This idea ultimately satisfies her thirst for being accepted in a community, whether as a writer or
an immigrant.
3. When Alvarez introduces the Maribal sisters, the protagonists of her book Chasing Butterflies,
she explicates the sisters’ precarious circumstances, instead of merely prioritizing their
nationality.
4. Alvarez explains that her goal is to clarify how “writing powerfully about Latino culture [. . .] will
widen and enrich the existing canon” (170)—a canon which represents the acceptance of a
literature without borders.
5. This desire to be accepted in the American culture only augmented her frustration and
insecurity.
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2. Make subjects and verbs agree!
AWR: pg. 491-493


Singular subjects need singular verbs (which end in “s” in the present) THE DOG BARKS.
Plural subjects (which often end in “s” need plural verbs: THE DOGS BARK.
Think of there being one “s” to go around: either on the subject or the verb (this doesn’t work with
irregular plurals like “children”)
Incorrect: Sharon Old’s poem “Saturn” also maintain the theme of the ill effects of the father-dominated
family.
Correct:
Incorrect: Because such conjecture becomes a part of the process of translating, the translator’s own
understanding of the text’s content and context nearly always enter the equation, creating
inconsistencies among different translations of the same text.
Correct:
3. Use interesting verbs!
Not: is, was, are, were, shows, states, says, uses, seems, appears
Incorrect: In Something To Declare, Julia Alvarez shows that there is a connection between her writing
and society by writing about her experiences with competing cultural expectations.
Correct:
Your own examples:
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4. Use verbs you know!
A thesaurus can make you sound ridiculous if you choose words that don’t fit in the context of your
sentence. Use your online access to the Oxford English Dictionary to see a word in a zillion contexts, or
“Google” the word to see how it’s used, just for a definition.
Incorrect: Although Alvarez’s poems and essays commence from a particularly American-Hispanic
perspective, she thoroughly reconnoiters basic human characteristics.
Incorrect: Although Alvarez’s poems and essays occurred from a particularly American-Hispanic
perspective, she thoroughly winnows basic human characteristics.
Correct:
5. Don’t use the passive voice to obscure your
ideas!
It is sometimes okay! You just need to be careful not to overuse it, or use it because you don’t want to
claim your own ideas.
How to identify passive voice:

Look for the passive voice: “to be” + a past participle (usually, but not always, ending in “-ed”)

If you don’t see both components, move on.

Does the sentence describe an action? If so, where is the actor? Is he/she/it in the grammatical
subject position (at the front of the sentence) or in the object position (at the end of the
sentence, or missing entirely)?

Does the sentence end with “by…”? Many passive sentences include the actor at the end of the
sentence in a “by” phrase, like “The ball was hit by the player” or “The shoe was chewed up by
the dog.” “By” by itself isn’t a conclusive sign of the passive voice, but it can prompt you to take
a closer look.
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Incorrect: In the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, a poly-vocal narrative is used so the world view of
each Maribal sister is illustrated.
Correct:
Incorrect: It is thought that history is not an absolute truth, but is instead written by those who assume
power.
Correct (sort of):
Your own examples:
6. Use the literary present tense
when writing literary analysis!
Incorrect: Trujillo’s regime capitalized on these circumstances and spun the story to promote his
interests. Alvarez illustrates this though the newspaper article published after Nelson was released:
“next day, we were famous…”…
Incorrect: Trujillo’s regime capitalized on these circumstances and spins the story to promote his
interests. Alvarez illustrated this though the newspaper article published after Nelson is released: “next
day, we were famous…”…
Correct:
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NOTE: Treat the book as your present time. Anything that happens in the book –including what the
author writes, scrutinizes, dissects, etc.—is discussed in the present tense.
This means that anything that the book treats as in the past—what happened before the present time of
the book—is discussed in past tense.
Example: A book that takes place in 2011 but features a character who served in World War II, and his
war experiences are referred to in the book but treated as part of the past.
Incorrect: The character spends his birthday [in 2011] remembering how he feels the first time he smells
a dead body.
Incorrect: The character spent his birthday [in 2011] remembering how he felt the first time he smelled
a dead body.
Correct:
Your own examples:
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