Get Those Expletives the (Expletive) Out of Your Writing!
Here is an easy tip to improve all your writing—copywriting, business writing, and any other time you put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).
I'll try not to get too word-nerdy here. Stick with me.
But first, a brief definition of what kind of expletive I am talking about, from dictionary.com:
Expletive: A word or other grammatical element that has no meaning but is needed to fill a syntactic position, such as the words it and there in the sentences It's raining and There are many books on the table.
In short, never start sentences with:
- There is/are/was
- This is/was
- It
Good writing is specific, and the expletives "there are", "this is" and "it" are weak, non-descriptive placeholders that dull your message.
A couple of quick examples. Let's look at "there are" first. Here's a sample sentence:
There are over fifty blue cows in the pasture.
Now let's dump "there are" and re-write:
Over fifty blue cows are in the pasture.
The second sentence is clearly stronger and more succinct. 'There are" isn't necessary. "There are" pushes your agent—the subject of the sentence—further down the line. And good sentences nearly always have the agent up front.
Now onto "it." "It" is usually used at the start of a sentence to refer back to the subject of the previous sentence:
Tuesday was bright and sunny. It was beautiful.
Instead, use a descriptive noun in place of "it":
Tuesday was bright and sunny. The day was beautiful.
(Actually, you could argue that "The day was beautiful" is completely unnecessary. But you get my point.)
Using "it" forces your reader to pause—even for an instant—to think back to what "it" is referring to. And if your reader has to stop and think about what you are referring to, then she isn't thinking about your message.
Never make the reader burn unnecessary brain power trying to understand your point!
I was a major offender of the "there are/this is" habit until I took a business writing course my MBA program. I do not claim to have originated the expletive insight.
Breaking the "there are, this is" habit is not easy. But your writing will be more succinct—and your message more easily received.