11/25/2008
Action, action, we want action.
| Active beats passive – every single time. Choose words – especially verbs – that are active, visual and powerful. Your writing will be far more vibrant and convincing if you use active rather than passive verbs. Passive verbs tend to be wordy, unnatural and, frankly, downright dull. Consider these two sentences: Passive: The book proposal was given to the publisher by Lisa. Active: Lisa presented her book proposal to the publisher. By the way, some of you have heard this story before but it is worth repeating: I once had a client who forbade me from using any form of the verb “to be.” This means I couldn’t use is, are, am, were, etc. At first I thought he was out of his mind, but you know what? The end product was all the more strong, forceful and effective. The verbs were impactful and had more meaning than those dreaded-but-necessary “to be” verbs. Although not markedly different, the active sentence simply sounds more interesting. And interesting is good! Labels: active writing, copywriting, marketing copy |
