...who is willing to concede that many students seem to have an inherent fear of verbs for some unknown reason
LOL Schoolmarm. I can tell you the reason. It's the verb "to conjugate"! I remember many hours spent conjugating verbs over and over and over.
Laura mentioned Strunk and White. The authors I work with overwhelmingly (yes, I know that's an adverb
)advocate the use of SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS by Dave King and Renni Browne. It's clear, concise, explains )among other things) why adverbs and adjectives should not be overused (overuse is indicative of a novice writer and signifies weak dialogue) and that having a reader run to the dictionary every other paragraph to look up a word throws readers out of the story (and indicates the author is more enamored of their vocabulary than drawing a reader into the story). It's said that you have one chance to make a good first impression. I believe that's true of writing as well. Many's the book I have tossed aside because I'm not hooked in the first few paragraphs. I tossed one night before last because the author was doing more telling than showing (which is a whole nother issue) and I felt like I was standing on the outside looking in rather than being pulled into the story.
