Friday, March 26, 2010

to be writing without to be, and "-tions"

Have you ever tried writing without some form of the verb, "to be?"  It is quite difficult, and as you can see, it took me two sentences until I used the most popular verb in the English language.  If you did not know, the verb "to be" has eight different conjugations: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, and been.  From this point on, I shall attempt to write this post without using any forms of "to be" unless I explicitly intend to, or in the progressive form (as in 'he was running' - running is the real verb, not was). I will also attempt to rid of "-tions" and unnecessary nouns from my writing.  Here we go:

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I absolutely hate trenching through piles of nouns and weak verbs that link them.  I do not understand why people love to make a statement when they can state their view.  I believe that their preference for nouns undermine their ability to write because they should really prefer verbs.  From time to time, government employees may find that communication through nouns and passive voice will yield better results, but in most cases, writers should really communicate.  So stop it with the obliteration of verbs before you obliterate the English language and annoy your audience beyond disbelief.  The deterioration deteriorates. 

I never had problems writing without "to be" in college, but now I do, which shows my weakening writing skills.  A fledgling high school student may believe writing with multiple "-tions" and "-ments" reflects professionalism when in reality, it only reflects their lack of understanding of the English language.

So remember - do not try to search for expressions, but please express yourself.

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