From my friend, Mary, The Queen of English
DO YOU REALLY WANT TO SEND YOUR READER INTO A COMA?
This workshop covers four topics: nominalizations, passive voice, vague -ing words, and weak verbs. These four problem areas spell rejection with editors because they rob your writing of energy and clarity. MM the Queen of English will show you how to fix these fatal flaws BEFORE you send your manuscript to an agent or editor.
During this 4-week session, you will receive 12 lessons on the four problem areas with practical homework assignments and personal feedback from the Queen. If you post all the homework when it’s due, I will line edit 1,000 words of your writing for all things English. I don’t edit for story elements like character development or point of view. I leave those topics to published authors.
What exactly are nominalizations? you ask. The simplest explanation is -- using a noun form of a verb instead of the verb. For example,
My collection of grammar books exceeds fifty. – collection is a nominalization. Notice the –ion suffix. The sentence is wordy and the subject is vague.
I have collected over fifty grammar books. – collected is a verb here. The subject is I. The sentence is clearer as to who’s doing the action of the verb and more straight forward, not so wordy.
Want to know what passive voice, vague –ing words, and weak verbs are? Visit my blog http://queenofenglish.wordpress.com during the month of August. I will post info on these topics as well as a post on nominalizations.
Want to know how these writing errors rob your writing of energy and how to correct them? Take this workshop. Here’s where to register: http://www.writersonlineclasses.com. Look on the Home page for August—September 2011 and the drop-down menu below that. In the list look for Pollard. That’s my workshop!
Hope to see you in class.
MM the Queen of English