Hey Everyone--
Hopefully you enjoy your weekend! The forms of to be are as follows:
is am are was were be being been
Basically, it's when you take an agent out of the sentence--
i.e. Jack hammered the nail into his hand!
v.
passive-The nail was hammered into his hand.
If you notice above, the first is much more powerful--the second has about as much excitement as a cold, clammy handshake. I want you to reinsert the agent--think about who is really doing the action and rephrase. You can use the Lard reducer method like we talked about in class. Evidence of passives usually include excessive prepositional phrases, a form of "to be," and confusion about the agent.
Good luck! We'll do another exercise on Monday and talk about credibility.
Char
Posted by tsch0070 at October 29, 2004 11:54 AM