Sharpening, in Ken Marcrorie's words means to give life to your writing. He states most beginning writers and some veteran writers use in excess the verb is(and all other forms of to be). Is by itself is meaningless, linking too many adjectives and nouns together deflating the life from the sentence. For example, Ken Marcrorie quotes Shakespeare's 'Macbeth':
"This tyrant whose sole name blisters our tongues,
Was once thought honest."
If Shakespeare incorporated excessive forms of to be, the line would read:
"This tyrant whose sole name is a blister on our tongues,
Was once thought to be honest."
He uses Is-ness and It-ache as explanation of a writer's inability to free themselves to use powerful words.
It & there take the place of an otherwise powerful noun leaving adjectives and adverbs without meaning or effect. Which type of sentence intrigues readers, passive or aggressive?
Passive sentences inhabit the is-ness and the it-ache. For example, Ken Marcrorie mentions this sentence:
"The object that was stepped on by me was a ladybug with lavender spots."
An aggressive (sharpened) sentence would read:
"I stepped on a ladybug with lavender spots."
Ken Marcrorie also stresses the use of verbs with more meaning than just the basic verb get or make, etc. Enlighten the reader, invite them in. Don't leave them yawning.
He also touches base on weasleries. He states, "There is a time to be cautious and a time to be bold." Don't apologize for your words. In his example, "She was unusually hideous." He claims the writer lessens the power of hideous with the weak word unusually.
His statements aren't intended to massacre the use of it & is, only raising attention to excessive use, enticing writers to give more meaning to their words. His moral is not to do away with all uses of the cited words, but to learn where to look for possible weak spots in your sentences.
When reviewing your writing ask yourself, "If the adjectives and adverbs are pulling their weight? Do the words around them render unnecessary?".
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I like the idea that he says using a form of "be" deflates the life in a sentence. I fully agree with the argument that the use of too many of them take away from writing because people’s language and their specific choice of words is what distinguishes their writing apart from others. In Shakespeare works for example, his use of language is what its best known. I could not imagine Shakespeare writing being written "This tyrant whose sole name is a blister on our tongues, / Was once thought to be honest” simply for the fact that the elimination of such forms helps get right to the point, is less wordy, and more meaningful. It gives the piece more creativity and becomes has more liveliness to it.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting document about how we use these passive words and could potential "deflate" sentences. I know in the past i have gotten teachers that have told me these and I never understood why. However taking in the examples i understand the the meaning of these adjectives and making work for my writing.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the author that using a from of "be" too many times takes away from the writing. It is already hard enough to write a paper in a way that'll keep the audience entertained throughout the whole reading, but this advice helps in doing so. I didn't quite understand what teachers were saying when they mentioned this to me, but after reading this article and seeing examples it has become a little bit more clear.
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ReplyDeleteI thought this article by Ken Marcrorie was great,and insightful. I always thought when you wrote essays that in order to make your sentences comes to life, you use excessive forms of the verb is, and other forms to be. The examples shown in Marcrorie's article showed by actually just eliminating some of the verb to be, and just basically getting straight to the point can help you not use unnecessary words that state the obvious. This article was very beneficial for me and something I will try and use in all of my classes when writing.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the article by Ken Macrorie was intereating, and made me think abou my own writing. It was interestinghow he said at the end that there is a time to be cautious and a time to be bold, and not to apologize for the words that we choose. I fully agree with that statement.
ReplyDeleteThis article opened my eyes to issues of my writing I had never even phathomed. When writing this blog, I revised it twice. I found myself using "is" and unnecessary words in abundance. I agree absolutely with Ken Macrorie's idea. Writing with out the use of the lazy words really balloons the meaning into interesting details. The difference between my first draft of this blog and the blog posted persuaded me to agree 100%.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this article by Ken Marcrorie completely. The word "is" is meaningless when by itself and we as writers need to find better, more descriptive wording in our writing. Each of Shakespeare's sentences holds meaning and beauty and we should all follow his ways. It seems as if teachers these days are leaving out the beauty of writing and instead are not motivating students to use more description but to get more to the point. However, we usually write how we speak and the average American students does not talk in old English.
ReplyDeleteIn high school, I was told by my teachers that I often added words that were not necessary to my sentences. I never really understood why it was such a big deal until college when I learned that the words I was adding, were meaningless. I agree with this article by Ken Macrorie when he says that the word "is" is meaningless. Students, myself included, need to use more descriptive words in my writing.
ReplyDeleteI very much enjoyed reading about sharpening writings. The word is does dellute sentences. The overuse of pronouns makes the writing less precise. By revising our writing we can make our messages much more effective and pleasing to the reader. The English language has so many short cuts afforded to those who speak it. When speaking the language it makes sense to over use is, it, and pronouns, especially in the information era we live in. The desire to get information to the listener fast and accurate are important. This type of speech can and will flow into our writings. While writing, we have no excuse to let this happen, because we can revise.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, Ken Marcrorie's article entitled "Sharpening" is indeed an exemplary example of utilizing solid editing skills when revising a written article to make it more readable and less verboise.
ReplyDeleteTighten through revision.
Is, it, there and other forms of to be deaden writing as they promote using passive verbs and non-descript pronouns.
Sharper editing is a luxury you buy with repeated drafts and Marcrorie offers instructive tips. Make nouns subjects, verbs active and create variety in your sentence structure. He had a good line, don't let your straight man upstage the comic, when cautioning not to let an adjective or adverb smother another word. In academia, writers tend to resort to Engfish and use weasel words to qualify statements that need to be stronger.
If Macrorie applies to travel the same attitude he has toward writing, he only packs one suitcase.
This article really caught my attention. My dad's always telling me that I use too many unnecessary words in my writing. I'm usually trying to fill space, but doing this really takes away from the creativity of my writing. By eliminating much of the use of meaningless words like "is" can really liven up peoples' writing and make it much more enjoyable to readers.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school, I had an English teacher who had posted a list of "Taboo Words" on her wall that we were not allowed to use in our writing-- the words "you," "do," and "thing" were among them. At first, it was really difficult to cut these words out of my writing, but once I learned to eliminate them successfully and understood why she demanded so of us, I really appreciated her for it.
ReplyDeleteMarcrori and my old English teacher both have the same goals in mind--to strengthen our writing skills and give our sentences life. By our awareness of using forms of "is" and "it," as well as the words "you," "do," and "thing," we are able to strengthen our writing skills and hopefully engage our readers better.
This article really interested me, as it gave me many suggestions on how to improve my writing. I agree that words like, "it," "there," and "to be" are used too often. It makes the material too repetitive and extremely boring to read. I also agree with the fact that many writers could delete many of the adjectives and adverbs that they use with certain nouns. This would make things more clear to the reader and provide a better explanation while using fewer words. Most writers that aren't using Engfish aim for a sentence that contains the least amount of words. This prevents the sentence from being dragged out. Most unnecessary words are there just to take up space. Also, by deleting certain adverbs and adjectives, the sentence can stand more boldly on its own, along with clarifying it. The example that I referred back to for this was, "She was unusually hideous." Using different and better words for verbs also make sentences more exciting to read. They also often fit the action better. The example that I referred back to for this was, “They put the stones together,"/"They cemented the stones together." It adds much more detail to what is actually happening. Using words like "kind of" and "sort of" also makes the author and the writing seem unsure of themselves and imprecise. It is not direct enough. Using words such as "honestly" also makes the writer look less reliable, as this is often when the author is being the least honest. Sharpening my writing is a lot harder than what I thought it would be, but reading this article definitely made me more aware of what I should be looking for.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting article. I like that Ken wants us to be more aggressive and allow the srite to really invite the reader into what we are writing about. Sometimes I do take the passive road myself when I am trying to not be so aggressive in my descriptions of a noun. I like that the author wants us to be aware of this because I have caught myself doing since reading this article.
ReplyDeleteMarcrorie is completely correct when he says all forms of "to be" are overused. There are so many words than can give more life and meaning to your writing. Using too many "to be" verbs makes an author's writing almost meaningless. Writing is most interesting to read when action verbs are put in the place of boring "to be" verbs.
ReplyDeleteAt first, it may be difficult to cut these words from your writing. But when you are able to write without using an excess amount of the "to be" verbs, your writing instantly improves.
I found this article very interesting as well as helpful. I agree that the word "is" becomes meaningless and often redundant in writing. I also agree that by using less is more when it comes to the forms of "be". I liked how Marcrorie used many example and used Shakespear's work as an exple to make his point much more clear. I feel that this article will help me in my writing in the future.
ReplyDeleteThis is another issue in grammar I never really thought about until now. Thankfully, I mainly overuse of "to be" verbs in speech more than writing. I see it as a subtle problem - one that doesn't make the writing necessarily incorrect, but definitely worse than it should be. I remember a high school English teacher I had talked on this a little, and I think he helped me try to as he'd say "trim the fat" of sentences in this manner.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I hadn't previously given this issue much thought, now that I'm examining grammar more closely, I completely agree with Ken Marcrorie. It does tend to lessen the strength of a sentence when it is encumbered with it and is. I like the example of Shakespeare in this article. Although we now view Shakespeare as difficult to read and comprehend, his sentence structure was not only more poetic but more to the point! Hopefully we can learn from these men and simplify our own sentences, and perhaps they'll sound more poetic.
ReplyDeleteI tend to avoid excessively using verbs such as is (and all forms of to be), as well as adjectives, adverbs and passive verbs whenever I am writing. I have found that they only confuse the person, the reader, that I am writing to. Furthermore, the absence of excessive words allows the reader to have time to read documents sent to them by others as well, which they are sure to appreciate.
ReplyDeleteI also prefer using an active voice as opposed to a passive one, "which creates dullness," according to Macrorie. And like Macrorie, I find that revising my work is particularly helpful whenever I write. This is something I do regularly and without fail.
Finally, I have learned that writing needs to be precise and concise, or at least according to the U.S. Military's standards.