English Prime

[Beverly Flanigan]

I guess we'll all be writing like the "new" journalists, who say "Important
events happening at the White House...."  How ridiculous.  Who's teaching
these teachers?



At 11:15 AM 5/23/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>Although they are not researchers, most of the English teachers at my high
>school are on a crusade to rid students' writing of 'to be verbs.'  They
>have come up with a list of 'to be verbs,' which includes 'am, are, is,
>been, was, could, should, would, have' and a host of other verbs that they
>call 'to be verbs.'  Don't know where the list came from or what a verb
>must do to be (oops!) admitted to this special club, but the zeal with
>which some of my colleagues mark up papers has taken on a religious
>fervor.  No teacher (or student, of course) has been able to explain to me
>what this is all about.  I think it has something to do with the passive
>voice.  If the passive voice is so bad, you might ask, why not just teach
>them what the passive is and avoid it?  That is another story.  So, the
>students just go merrily along, never writing anything on the list.  I
>love Big Brother.
>Fritz
>
> >>> richard20009 at HOTMAIL.COM 05/23/03 10:32AM >>>
>I encountered a concept called "English Prime" (roughly, omitting the verb
>to be). I admit it intrigues me and wish to learn more. Do scholars hold
>this concept in high esteem? Would anyone kindly pass along names of
>researches who have studied this concept?
>
>Thank you,
>Richard