ENG 4339 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Individualism, Western Philosophy
To Be or Not To Be? That is the Composition Question
The dilemma: ontology (the study of Being) stands at the center of Western philosophy, but
academic writing avoids unnecessary being verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been).
Readers want strong verbs to move the action of your sentences and paragraphs instead of being
verbs that stagnate through attribution. To assist you on your quest for writing perfection I
present several ways to improve your verb use as you write.
1.) Avoid the construction “there is/are…”
In addition to causing many subject/verb disagreements, this construction forces you to use a
being verb when there is frequently a stronger verb available. For example, why say “There are
many factors behind the Protestant Reformation” when you could say “Many factors caused the
Protestant Reformation” or “The Protestant Reformation resulted from many factors”? Make
sure you have a strong, clear subject before a strong, clear action verb for clean, concise prose.
After all, there is nothing worse than this construction!
Examples:
In Europe, there were many changes occurring during the years 1300 until 1600.
When a parent would send their kid away, that was letting the teenager grow up on the outside
world where there would be fewer juvenile distractions.
There may be a way to prevent using unnecessary “to be” verbs, but many people think there is
no alternative.
2.) Avoid passive verbs
Many unnecessary “to be” verbs are helping verbs in passive voice constructions. Eliminating
passive voice may help eliminate unnecessary “to be” verbs and allow a smoother flow of your
prose. After all, passive verbs are used poorly by most writers!
Examples:
This recycling system can be seen most prominently within the conception of culture.
This idea can simply be displayed as an endless, everlasting cycling process.
As defined by this essay, culture is a set of collective achievements by humans, such as myths.
3.) Attribution is never as interesting as action
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Document Summary
The dilemma: ontology (the study of being) stands at the center of western philosophy, but academic writing avoids unnecessary being verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been). Readers want strong verbs to move the action of your sentences and paragraphs instead of being verbs that stagnate through attribution. To assist you on your quest for writing perfection i present several ways to improve your verb use as you write. In addition to causing many subject/verb disagreements, this construction forces you to use a being verb when there is frequently a stronger verb available. For example, why say there are many factors behind the protestant reformation when you could say many factors caused the. Make sure you have a strong, clear subject before a strong, clear action verb for clean, concise prose. After all, there is nothing worse than this construction! In europe, there were many changes occurring during the years 1300 until 1600.
