Muscular verbs
Analyze the following text for sentences whose energy leaks out through weak, passive, or over-modified verbs. The verb is the engine of the sentence; when it stalls, the prose goes static no matter how vivid the surrounding words. Focus on these categories:
1. Passive voice that drains momentum — flag passive constructions where the active version is stronger and clearer ("the door was opened by her" → "she opened the door"). Identify cases where the passive also hides the agent of the action, whether by accident or evasion ("mistakes were made"). Note the legitimate exceptions: when the agent is genuinely unknown or irrelevant, or when the object truly deserves the emphasis.
2. Smothered verbs (nominalizations) — flag verbs that have been buried inside noun phrases, forcing a limp helper verb to do the work: "make a decision" (decide), "give rise to" (cause), "reach a conclusion" (conclude), "conduct an investigation" (investigate), "is in agreement with" (agrees). Show how recovering the buried verb makes the sentence move.
3. Adverb crutches — flag an adverb propping up a verb that should carry the meaning alone. When a single stronger verb makes the modifier obsolete, name it: "walked slowly and painfully" → "trudged" or "limped"; "closed the door quietly" → "eased the door shut"; "looked angrily" → "glared."
4. Generic all-purpose verbs — flag the low-resolution verbs that stand in for something more exact: "was," "went," "got," "put," "made," "did," "had." These are not wrong in themselves, but when a precise verb would sharpen the image without changing the register, note it.
5. Hedging and filter verbs that sap force — flag tentative constructions that hold the action at arm's length: "began to," "started to," "seemed to," "tried to," "proceeded to," "sort of." Often the sentence is stronger when the character simply does the thing ("she began to cry" → "she cried").
Do not flag the linking verb "to be" where a plain state is genuinely what is meant, passive voice used deliberately and well, or intentionally flat, plain diction where a "weaker" verb is the right tonal choice. Muscular does not mean ornate. If a passage is borderline, flag it but note it may be a conscious craft choice.
For each issue found, quote the specific passage, name which verb weakness it is and why it drains the sentence, and offer a revised version built on a stronger verb. Match the voice, tense, and point of view of the original.
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