Monday, May 22, 2006

A Secret No One Tells Beginning Writers

Write for Profit with Professor Dick
Blog #2

A Secret No One Tells Beginning Writers

Professional writers have a flair for action. They know their grammar. On purpose, they use verbs that show action and pass action. These pass action from the subject to the direct object, from the doer to the receiver. We call these “transitive” verbs.

Look at: He hit the nail on the head.

You have a doer: He. You have an action: hit. You have a receiver: nail.

To find the object after the verb, ask “whom?” or “what?” Sometimes the receiver is a person, sometimes a thing.

WHEN A VERB PASSES ACTION ON TO AN OBJECT, IT IS CALLED A TRANSITIVE VERB. “Trans” is Latin for “across.” The verb passes the doer’s action across to the receiver.

SOMETIMES AN ACTION WORD WILL NOT PASS ACTION. THESE VERBS ARE CALLED “INTRANSITIVE.” THE PREFIX “IN” MEANS “NOT.” ACTION DOES NOT PASS ANYWHERE SO THE VERB IS NOT TRANSITIVE.

She screamed at the burglar.
No word answers when you ask, Screamed what?

Professional writers make a point of using transitive verbs. I’ll prove it in a moment.

Some intransitive verbs are called “linking” verbs. I call them the “stinking linking verbs.” These kill action. Professional writers avoid them and their articles sell.

Linking verbs join nouns to nouns or nouns to adjectives without action. These words act like equal signs. She is lovely>She=lovely. He is the fullback>He=fullback.

Item: Linking verbs connect the doer with a noun that renames it or an adjective that describes it.
Gertrude was French. She was beautiful.

Item: English has three kinds of linking verbs for you to HATE and AVOID like the plague. HATE HATE HATE HATE. YOU WILL NEVER SELL WHEN YOU USE A LOT OF LINKING VERBS.

(1) BE verbs: to be, is, am, are, was, were, being, been (when these stand alone and are not a helping verb as in is running, was broken)

(2) SENSE verbs: sound, feel, look, taste, smell
That sounds loud>That=loud.
The turkey smells good>The turkey=good.
The test looks difficult>The test=difficult.
The fur feels soft>The fur=soft.
That tastes sweet>That=sweet.

(3) These are what I call the BRAGS verbs.
Become: He became rich>He=rich.
Remain: He remained a failure>He=failure.*
Appear: She appeared faint>She=faint.
Grow: He grew tall>He=tall.
Seem: He seemed smug>He=smug.

*Sometimes a BRAGS verb or a sense verb will have a direct object. When it does, it becomes transitive.
He smelled the dinner cooking.
He proved the geometry problem.
(Sometimes prove, turn and go are linking verbs.)

NOW, USING THE MAY ISSUE OF “READER’S DIGEST” AS OUR EXAMPLE TEXT, LET’S SEE WHAT PUBLISHED WRITERS ARE DOING WITH THEIR VERBS.

In “Bases Loaded” on page 29, we have 81 transitive verbs and 5 linking verbs. (6%)

In “Diving Buddy” on page 32, we have 142 transitive verbs and 23 linking verbs.

In “No Guts, No Glory” on page 53, we have 135 transitive verbs and 20 linking verbs. Some 11 of those linking verbs appeared in conversations. We subtract them from the total because the writer cannot govern what every character says. So only 6% of this writer’s verbs are intransitive.

In “Show Us the Money” on page 65, 92 verbs are transitive with 15 intransitive. Three of those occurred when the writer complained, “It’s fraud. It’s wrong. It’s illegal.”

NOTICE: In every case, professional writers are using intransitive verbs—but not many.

In “Voice of Courage” on page 85, we have 97 transitive verbs and 17 linkers. But 5 of those were within quotes.

In “Whale of a Rescue” on page 102, we have 167 transitive verbs and 14 linking verbs of which 6 are within quotes. (4.7%)

In “The Amazing Robot Boys” on page 114, we have 284 transitive verbs and 33 linking verbs of which 6 are in quotes. This means 9.5% of verbs are the weak ones.

In “Sparks of Genius” on page 132, we have188 transitive verbs and 15 linkers. (7.9%)

In “Street Medicine” on page 148, we have 182 transitive verbs and 24 linking of which 8 are in conversations. This means 8.8%.

In “Hail to the Chef” on page 158, we have 107 transitive verbs and 16 linkers less 2 in conversations. (13%)

In “Brotherly LOVE” on page 164, we have 281 transitive verbs and 36 less 10 linkers.

Have I proved my point? Professional writers concentrate on using transitive verbs when they write articles to sell. Again, you may have a sprinkling of linkers, but only a light dusting.
Count the linking verbs in your articles. If you have more than 10-13%, be assured you will have difficulty selling. You will have ponderous prose. Measure your work and let me know what you find.
Here’s to good writing.
Professor Dick Bohrer, M.A., M.Sc.

3 Comments:

Blogger bornfool said...

Prof. D,

Paul sent me over and I am glad he did. Thanks for the pointers. I'll be reading regularly.

Thanks.

3:10 PM  
Blogger Seeker said...

Paul sent me over here for some schoolin'...
This point is duly noted. I'll return for more lessons as time allows.
Thanks.

5:52 PM  
Blogger srp said...

Paul's words glow with praise for you. I see why. I'll be back.

10:59 AM  

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