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Subject:Re: It is . . . . . From:Scott McDaniel <mcdaniel -at- PIONEER -dot- USPTO -dot- GOV> Date:Thu, 10 Aug 1995 09:11:19 EDT
> Sherrill writes:
> >Never thought twice about the occasional use of It is . . . until I left
> >the group to work for another group at the same installation. On my first
> >day, I asked my boss (not a "writer" but pretty darn good with language)
> >what his pet peeves were. Guess what--It is . . . topped the list! He
> >says that you cannot always tell what the antecendent for "it" is supposed
> >to be! Same goes for "This is . . ." and other similar constructions.
> Sometimes "it is" is perfectly clear. In these cases, no harm is done. I
> prefer to use "this" as a demonstrative, but I occasionally use "this" as a
> pronoun when I'm too lazy to reword what I've written.
> Bill Burns *
I've always wondered what the antecedent is in the sentence,
"It's raining."
The sentence makes perfect sense, everyone knows what it means,
and I can't think of another way to say the same thing in half
as many syllables. Is this use of "it" bad style or just an
exception?
Scott McD.
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| Garcia Consulting, Inc.
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