Facebook activates sentences!
Mr. Boyle, my 10th grade English teacher took one look at the first article I published in the school paper and quickly circled every is, was, were and to be, then handed it back. I remember the crushing feeling of defeat as I'd previously been so proud of the piece; easy lesson, well learned.
Nearly every time I assign a release to a young writer they turn in something riddled with passive sentences. My first piece of advice: drop the verb "to be." What I get back is often much better and they tend not to make the same mistake again. Though, I try to do it without the humiliation.
Facebook finally let us choose our own verb for our status updates, eliminating the annoyingly passive "is" from our writing requirement.
Thank you Facebook, for passing 10th grade English.
Posted by Chuck Tanowitz on December 21, 2007 at 11:47 AM
