ACTIVE VERBS LIST
ACTIVE VERBS LIST
Verbs for Things Said
1. State: to express in words. (A general verb to begin things and much better than “says.”)
• Hawthorne states in the “Customs House” section of the book that the imagination . . .
2. Express: directly, firmly and explicitly stated. (For when someone is making a strong point.)
• In “Byzantium,” Yeats expresses his feelings about . . .
3. Indicate: to state or express briefly. (Use it when someone is being very direct and to the point.)
• Cardozo indicates his argument in a few short words: “_____________”
4. Declare: To make known formally and explicitly. (This is for legal, religious, and governmental decrees.)
• The colonists declared in this document that no man should_____
5. Refer: to make mention or reference. (When the writer is bringing in some outside source or event.)
• King refers to many social problems in the essay.
6. Articulate: to express clearly. (Use this when something is said clearly or as a transition.)
• The meaning here is inferred rather than articulated.
• She articulates her argument in the first paragraph. She states, “_______.”
Verbs for Presentation of Ideas
1. Create: to produce through imaginative skill. (“Imaginative” implies poetry, fiction, plays.)
• In this poem Dickinson creates a vision of a world in which_________
• These words create in the reader a sense of_________
2. Conceive: to form or develop in the mind
• How Newton was able to conceive calculus simply boggles the mind.
3. Assemble: to fit together the parts of (To show you know how things are put together)
• Woolf assembles her images beautifully in these prologues. She begins with _______
• At the end, O’Brien leaves the reader to assemble the meaning of these fragments.
4. Construct: to set in a logical order (like an essay); to make or form by combining parts
• Darwin constructs his argument carefully. He first introduces ______ and then he ______
• Conrad constructs the story in an unusual way. Instead of a chronological narrative, he . . .
5. Presents: to bring or introduce into the presence of someone. (Use it for an argument or theory.)
• Freud presents his argument in a straightforward fashion.
6. Introduce: to present or announce formally and officially (New ideas for instance)
• Einstein introduced his theory of special relativity in 1906.
7. Establish: to make firm or stable (For a political tract, but also to qualify your own understanding)
• Machiavelli establishes his thesis quickly. In the very first line of The Prince he states, _________
• Donne’s intentions in the second stanza of the poem are difficult to establish.
8. Affirm: to approve or endorse. (You use this to prove something.)
• Keats' poem affirms his belief in the supreme and enduring value of beauty.
Verbs for Internal Organization or Understanding of Text
1. Reveal: to open up to view. (A good verb for when you’ve discovered something in the text.)
• The contrast between Hamlet and Laertes reveals Hamlet’s lack of ____.
2. Disclose: to expose to view. (Use when you want to imply something is difficult to figure out.)
• Plath does not directly disclose her intent in the poem.
3. Convey: to impart or communicate by statement, suggestion, gesture or appearance. (Used when a writer is employing many different tricks to get his/her point across)
• Emerson conveys his point though statements, images and rhetorical questions.
4. Contrast: to compare or appraise in respect to differences (Use it to show you’ve figured out a contrast.)
• Fitzgerald contrasts Daisy with Jordan. Daisy is _______, whereas Jordan _________.
• The tone of the final stanza contrasts markedly with the opening lines of the poem.
5. Apply: to put into operation or effect. (Use this to show you can see some idea being applied.)
• When Godel applied his theory to quantum mechanics he ____________________
6. Classify: to arrange in classes (More for hard science, but could be use in social science or literature)
• Erickson classifies identity development into eight stages.
• We cannot classify the poem as a traditional elegy since the grief is private.
7. Clarify: to free of confusion. (Good when a plot problem clears up or when someone gets into a debate.)
• Tom and Huck clarify the confusion over Jim’s escape in chapter 31.
8. Relate: to show or establish logical casual connection between. (Very good when discussing cause and effect)
• This element obviously relates to what happened earlier in the book when Pecola ________
Verbs for Emotional or Intellectual Response
1. Generate: to bring into being, give rise to. (Use it to show the power of a passage on a reader.)
• The opening imagery of Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher generates a sense of ______
• Emma’s decision generates a series of events which culminate in _________
2. Awaken: to cause to wake up (Use this for reaction after a moment of discovery.)
• The abrupt silence at the end of the scene awakens the reader to the fact that_______
3. Recall: to remember, recollect, bring to mind (When you identify a connection with some other text)
• The death of Marlowe’s assistant recalls an earlier scene in the novel in which ___________
4. Energize: to make energetic or vigorous. (Use this for writing that really gets you going.)
• The enjambment really energies the poem. The reader’s eyes rush from_______ to_______ to______.
5. Involve: to wrap, envelope (Use this when you’ve totally entered into the world of the writing.)
• Marquez’s remarkable story totally involves us in Florentino’s quest.
6. Provoke: to incite to anger (Show you know when the intent is there to anger or challenge.)
• The shocking images in Philip Levine’s poem “The Children’s Crusade” provokes its readers to _________
7. Stir: to disturb the quiet of; to bring into notice or debate (A subtle word for feelings or ideas aroused)
• This final image stirs in us a sense of _________
8. Evoke: to call to mind by naming, citing or suggesting (Use it when you want to be poetic)
• Baudelaire’s use of synesthesia in his poem “Correspondences evokes a sense of _______
• The scenes with Scout and her brother evoke a more innocent time, a time when_____
Verbs for Inference
1. Infer: to derive as a conclusion from facts or premises.
• One may infer from Tennyson________
2. Imply: to express or indicate indirectly.
• Hamlet’s words to Ophelia imply _____________
3. Signify: mean, denote; imply (Use it for symbols and for actions.)
• The Roman cross signifies many of things. First, ________
• What does Allie’s baseball mitt signify? It could mean a number of things.
4. Allude to: to make an indirect reference (Any allusions you find, use this)
• Auden alludes to Greek mythology quite often in this poem. In line 9 he______
• Darrow alludes to the situation only indirectly in his closing.
5. Suggest: to bring or call to mind by logic or association; to make evident indirectly. (Inference is implied here)
• In these lines Tolstoy seems to suggest that _______
• These are images that suggest both hope and desire.
Verbs for Concluding
1. Realize: to make real or fulfill. (Summing up whether or not the writer succeeded)
• Faulkner’s characters in As I Lay Dying are among the most fully realized in all of literature.
• I believe in the end, Flaubert realizes his goal—to create a portrait of________
2. Produce: to give being, form or shape to. (Think of this as creating, but in a concluding sense)
• This final line produces in the reader a sense of dread.
• Beckett has produced here a work of uncompromising honesty.
3. Accomplish: to succeed in doing, to bring to pass (Use it to recognize achievement.)
• Henry accomplished what he set out to do—mobilize popular sentiment against the British.
4. Achieve: to carry out successfully
• Edison clearly achieved what he set out to do with this invention--______________
• Does Gatsby achieve his dream? Obviously not
5. Demonstrate: to prove or make clear by reasoning or evidence (Use it when an argument has been proven.)
• Currie demonstrates with this experiment that penicillin __________
6. Support: to uphold or defend as valid or right (Use this when statistics or evidence is present.)
• Mead supports her theory with empirical evidence.
7. Resolve: to reduce by analysis; find an answer to. (Use this in discussing science, philosophy and literature)
• Most critics feel that Milton’s Paradise Lost fails to resolve the problem of evil.
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