Verb Your Enthusiasm: How to Master the Art of the Verb and Transform Your Writing

“Personable, smart, and, yes, enthusiastic… a masterclass you can take at your own pace.” – Ron Charles

“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.

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.