Overview

“This verb-filled outing reads like a dream.” – Publishers Weekly (starred) “An almost shockingly adroit guide to how to make every word count.” —Benjamin Dreyer, author of the New York Times bestseller Dreyer's English An elegant guide to the promise, power, and poetry of verbs, from Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Sarah L. Kaufman Verbs are the underrated stars of the English language. They hold it all together. A complete sentence cannot exist without one, yet a single verb can create complete meaning. (See?) In this brilliant exploration of language, grammar, and style, Sarah L. Kaufman illuminates how all of us, professional writers and novices alike, can master the art of the verb and unlock the infinite potential of written expression. When she was the dance critic at The Washington Post, Kaufman was challenged to translate the dynamic language of movement into words. Verbs showed her the way. Good verbs power great storytelling; they leap off the page, fire our senses, and transform our perceptions. Verb Your Enthusiasm is a clarion call for all of us to get back to basics: to mean what we say, and say what we mean. Across eleven chapters, Kaufman proves how strong verbs can make your own writing—be it an email, a text, a report, or an ad—more efficient and effective, and investigates theories of language that will change how you read and write. But this isn’t a grammar guide, and it surely isn’t a set of rules. Great writing comes from a mix of inspiration, passion, and intelligence—from your unique discernment and imagination. Searching for the right verb might even reveal something true about yourself. All that in a word. So go. Write. Verb.

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Reviews

“Well, yes: Sarah L. Kaufman's Verb Your Enthusiasm is, at first glance, a primer on the effective use of what we were raised as young folk to think of as action words, but like all first-rate writing on language, it's also a meditation on existence. This particular meditation is, as well, a call to arms to sharpen the way we think and thus the way we express ourselves (and vice versa) and an almost shockingly adroit guide to how to make every word count. Kaufman excels at illuminating the visceral power of verbs (and, OK, adjectives and adverbs and nouns and all the rest of our word arsenal too; one can't thrive on verbs alone), both with her own elegant and thoughtful sentences and with the myriad extremely well chosen examples she's plucked up from others' writing. Writers—fledgling and expert—will find much here that's practically useful, stimulating, and enlightening; all readers, I think, will benefit from Kaufman's graceful exhortation to wield language effectively and—in an era of confounding obfuscation—honestly.” —Benjamin Dreyer, author of the New York Times bestseller Dreyer's English

“Every writer, from novelists and journalists to town-council minute-takers, can enliven their work with a few choice verbs, according to this graceful guide from Pulitzer winner Kaufman . . . During her nearly 30 years as a dance critic for the Washington Post, [Kaufman] honed the skill of choosing precise and evocative verbs to express both motion and emotion. Chapters with appropriately active titles like Energize, Sharpen, Weed, Tantalize, and Zhush It Up are peppered with examples from the likes of Zadie Smith, Wallace Stevens, Anton Chekhov, and Ray Bradbury . . . Kaufman also provides digestible tips and quick exercises, plus a splendid list of verbs that have faded from general usage . . . Calling verbs 'the secret superpower of language,' Kaufman posits that 'nouns are our reality; verbs are our dreams.' Indeed, this verb-filled outing reads like a dream.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Well, yes: Sarah L. Kaufman's Verb Your Enthusiasm is, at first glance, a primer on the effective use of what we were raised as young folk to think of as action words, but like all first-rate writing on language, it's also a meditation on existence. This particular meditation is, as well, a call to arms to sharpen the way we think and thus the way we express ourselves (and vice versa) and an almost shockingly adroit guide to how to make every word count. Kaufman excels at illuminating the visceral power of verbs (and, OK, adjectives and adverbs and nouns and all the rest of our word arsenal too; one can't thrive on verbs alone), both with her own elegant and thoughtful sentences and with the myriad extremely well chosen examples she's plucked up from others' writing. Writers—fledgling and expert—will find much here that's practically useful, stimulating, and enlightening; all readers, I think, will benefit from Kaufman's graceful exhortation to wield language effectively and—in an era of confounding obfuscation—honestly.” —Benjamin Dreyer, author of the New York Times bestseller Dreyer's English

Author Information

Sarah L. Kaufman is a Pulitzer Prize–winning critic, an author, and a writing teacher. As The Washington Post's chief dance critic and senior arts reporter, she focused on the union of art and everyday living. Her work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Review of Books, and The Boston Globe. She was a 2024 Penn State Foster-Foreman Distinguished Writer and has received journalism fellowships from the Nieman Foundation and the French-American Foundation. Her debut book, The Art of Grace, was a Washington Post notable book and won the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award and a Spirituality & Practice Award. A former McGraw Professor of Writing at Princeton University, Kaufman has also taught at Harvard University, American University, and the National Critics Institute. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

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