The Daily News

Special guests: the cast of the middle!!!!!!!

1   Happy Thursday!!!!!!! 

2   Ready for a quick lesson?

3   Okay I'll leave.

4   Just kidding. I peeked yesterday. People read about writing improvement. 

5   Today I'll give a technique that makes writing with the active voice easy.

6   The active voice means you have put in more forceful verbs, making a sentence pop. 

7   In The Elements of Style, Strunk and White use perfect examples illustrating this. The sentences on the left show passive voice. The sentences on the right show active voice. Here are the examples from The Elements of Style:

     There were a great deal of leaves lying           Dead leaves covered the ground.

on the ground. 

      At dawn the crowing of a rooster could          The cock's crow came with dawn.

be heard. 

   The reason he left college was that his health                   Failing health compelled him to leave college.

became impaired. 

    It was not long before  she was very sorry that she         She soon resented her words.

had said what she had. 

8   They go on to point out how the active voice sentences are all shorter, finishing with this quotable thought: Thus, brevity is a by-product of vigor.

9   Brevity is saying a lot in a brief way. You might be familiar with this quote from Polonious in Hamlet: Brevity is the soul of wit. 

10   He follows quickly with the words, Your son is mad.

11   Something Strunk and White don't mention is that the sentences above litter the room with wussy helping verbs: were, could be, was, was was had said, etc. 

12  The sentences on the right show no such nonsense. 

13   In the sentences on the right, all helping verbs disappear. 

14  So that's how you do it.

15  I'll keep that simple. Weed out helping verbs whenever possible. Don't omit them entirely, but do go through and weed. Your garden grows better, and more beautifully.

16  End of lesson. 

17  Moving On, Part One: Am I allowed one corollary? 

18  You must use this each time you write. That doesn't mean use all short sentences, nor does it mean you must eliminate all helpers. It just means stay vigilant. 

19  Moving On, Part Two Live from Sac: Crazy fires are blazing up in these parts. It is early evening. As of this moment,  the Jackson fire just flew up a canyon. 

20  I hope your friends and relatives who live in the area are safe.

21   The news reporters are using words like swirl and whirl, rushing, moving, gusts, etc. The helicopter shots move in and out from over 6500 feet. Incredible.

22   KCRA's fire coverage challenges my ability not to get dizzy. Riveting. I feel imbalanced watching all of this.

23   They caught a drone on camera diving into the smoke.

24   SMH. That translates to shaking my head. So true and real. 

25   Moving On, Part Three: This is a bit off the cuff, but  they had a the middle marathon on last night. If you don't know, the middle is a sitcom dating back to 2009.

26   Believe it or not I consider myself a newbie to this one, even though is moving into it's seventh season.

27   It caught me off guard a few weeks ago, but I am slowly allowing it to grow on me. 

28   Fans of the show need to enjoy my discoveries here and the reasons why I hadn't seen it when it first hit the waves.

29   I got hired at Evergreen in 2007 and if I recall was still running school activities right round that time. Running school activities meant I had to attend most school events, ranging from football games, to running the shot clock at basketball games or doing light design for various theater events. 

30  I'm attempting to shorten all of this, so I offer only the proverbial tip of the iceberg, but at the time, I found myself putting in long hours, with no time allowed for discovering a new teevee series. 

31   By the way, did you know that the plural of series is series?

32   Sort of like deer and fish.

33   Without a glance I knew you'd be enthralled. So...where were we? Ah, yes: the middle marathon. Thank you.

34   The night before last brought a classic: the family had to drive a float in a parade. There's MUCH more to it, but I've no time to put it all out there. I am writing to the series' followers: I have found your jewel.

35   Last night they played the Thanksgiving one, where the house kept receiving uninvited guests. 

36   It worked on me. I cook, and I have hosted parties. Many. So watching Ritz crackers bags being crushed to augment a salad worked, perhaps like never before. With all due respect, you had to be there. And if you have been there, you get it. 

37   Moving On, Part Four: Think I'll keep this one short. I've some important matters facing me this day. Allow me to explain. 

38   As of this writing, my daughter  Caitlin could have twin girls at any moment. Every time I see young women and men carting their kids around, I smile. I know they are exhausted, but I find myself pretty eager to hop on the G-Pa train.

39   A commercial just came on the teevee that began, "I think I can; I think I can; I think I can..." right after I typed the word train.

40  Do we not listen to these coincidences?

41   Someone on the teevee just shouted, "Shut up and make dinner!"

42   Why, I was just about to do that, thank you very much.

43   Crazy stuff. 

44   So I gottago. Gotta cut this off. Gotta make dinner.

45   We'll see you again. I can almost assure you there will be twins next time we meet.

46   Meanwhile, have a GREAT day.

47   Know I will.

48   Know we will. Practice active voice. You'll be amazed. Share in our joy. That too.

49   See you again.

50   Peace.

~H~

fin.