primus

Argument #10:
(by James French - http://learn-gs.org/library/etc/49-2-french.pdf)

THE CLAIM THAT E-Prime has an inherent, beneficial effect on a person's writing ability seems highly questionable, considering that E-Prime deliberately eliminates a whole class of statements from the language, resulting in fewer alternatives. The English writer can use all of the statements available to the E-Prime writer, plus a whole class of statements containing the verb "to be." The greater variety of available wordings should make the English writer's efforts more interesting to read, not less. (Any bad writing that occurs because of the over-use of the verb "to be" - a common failing - can be more easily overcome by simply cutting back on one's use of "to be," rather than resorting to E-Prime.

primus

Square's counter-argument:

Ad #10: Yes, but I still can't see the point. The word "to be" may become an alternative for virtually any other word, and its inherent ambigousness doesn't help very much. People skilled in E-Prime use could still use various of different expressions, not having to resort to substituting previously used ones for a mere "to be".

primus

My comment:

If you can do away with the bad stuff with the stroke of a pen, why not go all the way?

To use an analogy: If you know that junk food affects your health in a negative way, why not stop eating it completely? The author suggests the equivalent of the assertion that eating some junk food has a positive effect because it increases the variety of one's food intake.

Once you limit yourself to e-prime (or to healthy food for that matter), you discover a seemingly endless number of options available within those self-chosen boundaries that others will never know about. e-prime increases both precision and variety while e-standard brings with it the exact opposite outcome.

crystalserenity101

True. When people write in standard English they don't think about the other possible words they could use, and usually resort to using the easy-to-use verb to be's.

ksaupe

When I ask my students to write in E-Prime, they dredge up verbs they didn't know they knew. Their writing grows more lively and precise. E-Prime doesn't solve all writing problems, but it stimulates most writers to tap rarely-used resources. If and when they find a legitimate and advisable use for a "to be" verb, they can nearly always explain why they need it.