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It Is John McWhorter's Achilles' Heel
Season 1
Episode 17
Published 1 year, 4 months ago
Description
In this solo episode of Bald and Bloviating, host Mookie Spitz riffs on his linguistic pet peeve: the overuse of the passive voice. Prompted by a recent media blitz from linguist John McWhorter—whom Mookie once emailed with unsolicited writing advice—this episode dives into why phrases like "it is" and "there was" weaken prose. Drawing inspiration from a long-forgotten middle school teacher and Dickens’ famous opening, Mookie makes a passionate, funny case for active voice as the secret to strong, intentional writing.
The blog emailed to John:
https://medium.com/@mookiespitz/avoid-the-biggest-most-common-writing-mistake-dc859b9f8414