1. Process
  2. Conclusions
  3. Conciseness
  4. Verbs
  5. Data
  6. Conventions

4.2 General-action: verbs of vague action

These verbs are sometimes useful for getting some action into a noun, but usually they are to be avoided.

In the writing of Finance, the most common general-action verbs are these: exhibit, show, experience, post, report, realize, enjoy, suffer, and see. These verbs put too much stress on the reporting of figures and not enough on what actually happened to the company.

General: The company saw a rise in sales.
General: The company posted a rise in sales.
General: The company showed a rise in sales.
 
Forceful: The company's sales rose.
 
If you use such verbs because you want to avoid repeating the same verbal idea, ask yourself instead why the same idea is coming up over and over. You may find that you're using a paragraph to do the work of a table.

Would you like to see some sentences?

 

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