Dead Words

Dead words are simply words which are so overused in the English language, they no longer have much meaning nor do they add any emotion to the work. Some people however are a little strict about their use, and they may mark your grade down for it in school. Check with your teacher on which words you can use because some of the ones on the internet are not really dead words. Sometimes it can be an opinion, like some of the words I saw while trying to find a list.

that
so
a lot
like
got
very

You might even see out there on the internet to never use the word "said". I am a not a strong supporter of using the word "said," but I don't think you should use it every single line. Spice up your writing with emotion words rather than using the constant "said," but don't over do it to where you never see the word "said". Sometimes, you don't even need dialogue tags, especially if it's a conversation or fight between two characters. The reader can keep track of who's saying what.

"That" tends to take away emotion from the subject or object of the sentence. It's easy to replace with who, whom, or which. In turn with each other depending on what the sentence demands.

"So" is commonly a passing of time, and if you're looking for word count, it's much easier to replace with a longer sentence. You can even cut it completely and no harm done.

"A lot" you know, I don't understand why this one is a dead word. I see nothing wrong with it. It simply expresses there is an abundance of something. Maybe they just want you to use fancy language.

"Like" this one gets irritable after a while. It's used for comparisons and saying if you have crushes on people. It's easily over used, I see nothing wrong with it in conversation or dialogue, but it's generally best to avoid.

"Got" I got a frog in my pocket. Replaceable with "have" or "received," same general use as the word "like."

"Very" usually in conjunction with the word "like," meant to rank importance on a certain subject. Use fancier language when not in dialogue.

Active and Passive Voice

To be completely honest, I still don't understand this topic. We'll both be learning something new today!

Active= the subject of the sentence is "acting"
Passive= the subject and target of the subject switch positions

I'm always told to write with an active voice in essay's, who knows if I've managed it. I asked a bunch of people if they knew of a way to quickly describe it to get it through a lot easier, turns out, they didn't even know there was Active vs. Passive. This obviously shows how much of a problem it is in English. *whispers* I blame the teachers.

Here's a few examples to try and help:

Active:
I threw the ball.
Tricia loves Frodo.
The 16th Century poets most often dealt with the theme of...
You heard it on the radio.

Passive:
The ball was thrown by me. OR The ball was thrown.
Frodo is loved by Tricia.
The theme that was most dealt with by the 16th Century poets was...
Heard on the radio was a song.

Wow, those Passive examples were really boring. Basically, active keeps the reader interested because it has characters which draw you in and you know the subject and what they are doing. Passive can bore them to death because there's either something completely missing (the person performing the action) or the subject seems to be acted upon by the verb.

When you don't want to put the blame or responsibility on someone however, then use passive voice to save yourself or others from extreme embarrassment! Here are some example sentences:

Mistakes were made.
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