Lights, Camera, Action: The Power of Verbs. Writing Strategies to Ensure Your Action Words Are Not Weakened by Sloppy and Careless Drafting

Authors

Thomas Allan Heller
University of Maribor, Faculty of Law
Dilsuz Zoyirova Abdijalilovna
Uzbekistan State University of World Languages

Synopsis

The parts of speech form the backbone of English discourse and writing. They consist of nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, articles, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. This article focuses on verbs, which are generally action words. Verbs bring oral discourse and writing to life. Careless use of verbs does a major disservice to writing. It weakens writing and accordingly diminishes the overall vitality of the written word. The authors analyze the principal ways in which verbs are misused. They offer easy to understand, concrete examples of how to avoid the pitfalls of misusing verbs to ensure any subject, but particularly legal writing, will be as powerful and easy to understand as possible. Using verbs correctly is an important component of the Plain English Movement, whose goal has been to stamp out legalese.

Author Biographies

Thomas Allan Heller, University of Maribor, Faculty of Law

Thomas Allan Heller is an American legal expert who earned his legal education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Michigan, 1976) and obtained his J.D. from Wayne Law School in Detroit (Michigan, 1979). He successfully passed the Michigan State Bar Exam in 1981 and the Washington State Bar Exam in 1984. His professional career includes work both in the judiciary and in private legal practice. In 2017, he moved with his family to Maribor, where he established strong and successful ties with the Faculty of Law at the University of Maribor (PF UM). Through his collaboration with the faculty, Thomas Allan Heller made a significant contribution to the dissemination of knowledge about the American legal system in Slovenia. His involvement particularly enriched the teaching process at PF UM, offering students valuable insights into comparative and U.S. law. Thomas Allan Heller is also a key initiator of the now flourishing partnership between Wayne State University and PF UM. His academic work includes a range of scholarly articles published in respected Slovenian journals such as Lexonomica, Medicine, Law & Society, and Pravnik, further solidifying his role in fostering legal scholarship and international academic cooperation.

Maribor, Slovenia. E-mail: heller6651@msn.com

Dilsuz Zoyirova Abdijalilovna, Uzbekistan State University of World Languages

Tashkent, Uzbekistan. E-mail:  dzoyirova@gmail.com

Downloads

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Volume

Collected Papers of Thomas A. Heller

Pages

335-364

Published

July 14, 2025

Categories

Copyright (c) 2025 University of Maribor, University Press

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Heller, T. A., & Zoyirova Abdijalilovna, D. (2025). Lights, Camera, Action: The Power of Verbs. Writing Strategies to Ensure Your Action Words Are Not Weakened by Sloppy and Careless Drafting. In S. Kraljić (Ed.), Collected Papers of Thomas A. Heller (pp. 335-364). University of Maribor Press. https://press.um.si/index.php/ump/catalog/book/977/chapter/742