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Subject:To be or not: An E-Prime inquiry From:Anatole Wilson <awilson -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 5 May 1994 08:42:07 PDT
My only objection to using E-Prime is that the verb "to be" is a *symptom*
of passive language, not the cause.
The more frequent cause of passive writing is when the writer nominalizes
verbs into nouns, which then requires the use of "to be."
Joseph Williams discusses this in his book _Style:_Ten_Lessons_In_Clarity_
And_Grace_.
The wholesale removal of the verb "to be," as I'm told E-Prime advocates,
is not, IMHO, a sutiable replacement for good judgement.
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Anatole Wilson "We are all interested in the
Sr. Assoc. Information Developer future, for that is where you
IBM, Santa Teresa Labs and I will spend the rest of
our lives."
awilson -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com --Griswell Predicts,
all company disclaimers apply "Plan 9 From Outer Space"
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