Funny, my MFA didn’t include that rule about -ing words. Maybe that was so far in the past that this newfangled rule hadn’t appeared yet. It’s clearly stupid.
I think you’re right that these “rules” grow out of people taking suggestions to an extreme (and all considerations of style are just suggestions, not rules).
Funny, my MFA didn’t include that rule about -ing words. Maybe that was so far in the past that this newfangled rule hadn’t appeared yet. It’s clearly stupid.
I think you’re right that these “rules” grow out of people taking suggestions to an extreme (and all considerations of style are just suggestions, not rules).
That’s the case with adverbs and adjectives. Once, when someone was decrying Strunk and White for banning them outright, I thought to myself, “No they didn’t.” Then I went back and read: “Write with nouns and verbs, not adjectives and adverbs.” Certainly sounds like an outright ban! While they go on to explain what they mean, it seems many people didn’t get past that first sentence.
Same thing with “to be” verbs. I think some teachers found it too difficult to explain what passive voice actually is, and so just told students to avoid is, are, was, and were. So there goes past continuous, as you’ve pointed out before.
Thanks for encouraging writers to avoid these extremes. That’s the only rule we should follow!
Funny, my MFA didn’t include that rule about -ing words. Maybe that was so far in the past that this newfangled rule hadn’t appeared yet. It’s clearly stupid.
I think you’re right that these “rules” grow out of people taking suggestions to an extreme (and all considerations of style are just suggestions, not rules).
That’s the case with adverbs and adjectives. Once, when someone was decrying Strunk and White for banning them outright, I thought to myself, “No they didn’t.” Then I went back and read: “Write with nouns and verbs, not adjectives and adverbs.” Certainly sounds like an outright ban! While they go on to explain what they mean, it seems many people didn’t get past that first sentence.
Same thing with “to be” verbs. I think some teachers found it too difficult to explain what passive voice actually is, and so just told students to avoid is, are, was, and were. So there goes past continuous, as you’ve pointed out before.
Thanks for encouraging writers to avoid these extremes. That’s the only rule we should follow!
Much appreciated, my friend.