Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Editing Frenzy: Prompt Seven Clarification: The verb "to be"



This is where we make sure that we don't have millions of the verb “to be” under any form hanging around.
When the verb “to be” is hanging around, the writing is rather imprecise and hence needs to be adjusted.
  1. Start with expression such as “there is”, “there are”, “there were”, “there was”... “it is”... and see if you can replace them with a noun plus verb. 

    Example:
    Initial: When he entered the room there was a bouquet of fresh flowers on the table
    Replace with: When he entered the room the smell of flowers freshly picked up struck his nose. 

  2. Continue with tense check, see if you can replace a passive tense by an active tense.

  3. Make sure you are using continuous tense properly.
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