understanding "To Be" Verbs and Their contribution to Passive Writing

Friday, April 29, 2011

"To be" words play an prominent role in our written and spoken language, but because they're regularly overused, students should learn and practice ways to use them sparingly. Simply, here's a list of "to be" verbs every trainee should memorize: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, and been.

Help your child perceive that frequent use of these "to be" verbs regularly results in weak or passive writing, but active writing pulls the reader in and keeps his attention. Using strong, colorful verbs helps your trainee generate a great word photograph in the reader's mind. Active verbs transport impel and purpose; weak verbs say little.

Clothing Active

Your child should avoid "to be" words when:

• Another verb can make his point in a better, clearer way.
• He notes that he's used too many "to be" verbs already.
• His writing needs more action.

Limit the estimate of "to be" words a child may use in each story or paper. They play an prominent part in writing, so don't nix every one! But unless you train students to avoid or minimize use of "to be" words, they will undoubtedly take over his writing. Therefore, show him how to pick stronger verbs instead.

Examples:

Weak: A hot cup of cocoa is soothing. Active: A hot cup of cocoa soothes me. Weak: The first step is to get a broom, a dustpan, and a mop. Active: First, regain a broom, dustpan, and mop. Weak: Being lazy and careless, Stuart never hangs his clothes. Active: Lazy and careless, Stuart never hangs his clothes. Weak: It was so windy yesterday, and it was manufacture some brush fires in the canyon worse. Active: The wind whipped straight through the canyon yesterday, fueling some brush fires. Weak: My bike was run over by a car which was driven by an elderly lady who was in an old sedan. Active: An elderly lady driving an old sedan ran over my bike.

Sometimes a trainee can just change out a "to be" word with a more concrete verb. Other times, he will need to rearrange the sentence in order for his writing to still make sense. As you begin limiting how many "to be" words he can use, also make sure to teach him to use a collection of separate sentence starters to help him compensate. For example, he can begin a sentence with a prepositional phrase, a past or present participle, an adverb, or paired adjectives. The more sentence starters a trainee knows to use, the more skilled he'll become at rearranging those sentences. And the results will please both of you!

understanding "To Be" Verbs and Their contribution to Passive Writing