To Be or Not To Be

This post describes something useful about ordinary writing, not about Shakespeare.

First, read the comic, first panel.

Notice that you could have put “to be” between “turn out” and “so.” The sentence makes perfect sense the way she wrote it, though, doesn’t it?

Lots of languages leave out forms of “to be” most of the time. I remember hearing an interview in All Things Considered several decades ago. The guy had resolved to stop using any form of “to be.” And I’ve heard occasional remarks from teacher types who pointed out that you can replace “to be” with a more meaningful verb almost all the time, and doing so improves your writing. (I should add that using “to be” often puts a verb into the passive voice, which I already preach against.)

Give it a try: Cut down on using “to be.” It makes your writing livelier.

PS—in the second panel, for example, she could have said “Let’s go offline for the day.”

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This is a fairly standard curmudgeonly (okay, grammarian’s) complaint. Is the guy in the last panel right or wrong?

Well, he’s wrong. Somehow that word (it’s called an appositive) between the subject and the verb makes us want to use “us” instead of “we.” You wouldn’t say “us are allowed to be stupid,” would you? Nah, that would be stupid!

Don’t smoke Tareytons, either.

This post first appeared on The Writing Rag.

Some verbs take a direct object. We call them transitive verbs. Other verbs don’t take a direct object; we call them intransitive verbs.

So: “The computer displays a window”—transitive. You have to display something, in this case, a window.
And: “When you press Enter, the window appears.”—intransitive. Well, “press” is transitive, and “appears” is intransitive.

And some verbs can go either way. You can say, “Let’s run!” and “Let’s run a race!”

Here’s an example of a verb phrase (work out) that can go either way. I hope you don’t mind a big, complicated noun clause for the direct object…

Note that the transitive and intransitive meanings are quite a bit different, and therein lies the humor.

This post first appeared on The Writing Rag.

If you can, avoid using “make,” “do,” and any form of “to be” in your writing. Those verbs are ambiguous, and ambiguity is the enemy of good writing. Except in poetry and lies.

Here’s an example with “make.”

I admit, the choices aren’t graceful.

• Manufacture them fast enough
• Engineer them to go fast enough

But what matters is that you not be ambiguous!

I’ve heard this usage several times.

Just don’t call the practice of using the word “adult” as a verb “adultery.”