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4. Rescue “swallowed verbs.” To
many people, “business writing” means turning perfectly good verbs into
noun phrases … which may seem professional but only muddies your
writing. Examples:
Change “submitted an application” to “applied” and “gave authorization”
to “authorized.”
5. Eschew “make” and “made.” Technically,
this falls under “swallowed verbs,” but it’s so common that it deserves a
rule of its own. Examples: Change
“make a decision” to “decide”; “made a recommendation” to “recommended”;
“make a copy” to “copy”; “made an error” to “erred.”
6. Abandon weak “there is/there are” introductory phrases. Most
of the time, they’re unnecessary and only obscure your sentence’s
subject. Examples: Change
“There are four copies of this on your desk” to “Four copies of this are
on your desk”; change “There is no one who loves his work like Mr. Deeds”
to “No one loves his work like Mr. Deeds.”
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