How to prevent lazy writing Writing No No’s

Remove “to be” verbs Am Is Are Was Were Be, being, been

Remove Contractions Don’t Won’t Didn’t I’m = I am He’s/ She’s = He is / She is They’re = They are

Remove Passive Voice Ex: The watch was stolen by the robber. Correct: The robber stole the watch.

Avoid the is-ing syndrome She is walking to school.  She quickly walks to school with her best friends. They were studying all night.  They studied for their history final all night long.

No helping verbs as main verbs EX: She did her homework.  Correct: She completed her homework. EX: I have to work tonight.  Correct: I will work from six until ten tonight. Do, does, did Have, has, had

Do not repeat the same verbs, adjectives, etc. The boy worked on his bike while the other boy worked on his homework.  Instead… The motorcycle enthusiast tinkered with his bike while George completed his homework.

Remove “IT,” “There,”and “Here”as sentence beginners. There is a fly in my soup.  Instead… A fly landed in my soup. It was George who ate the hotdog.  Instead… George ate the hotdog

Avoid these lazy words: Get/got Stuff Thing EX: I got my stuff into the trunk.  I placed my books into the trunk.

Use strong vibrant verbs Ms. Foster walked into the room. Instead… Ms. Foster stomped into the room. Ms. Foster strolled into the room. Ms. Foster slid into the room. Avoid these words: like, love, hate, want, go, sad, bad, mad, nice, mean, and any other blah verbs

9+ words to a sentence. I went to the park. (5)  Instead… I furiously pedaled my ten-speed bike to O’Mulvany Park.