Strong Subjects #1: Avoid There/It Video Lecture | Learn and Master: Business Writing - Communication

so in this video segment we're going to
talk about a guideline that will help
you to develop strong subjects we want
you to write with strong decorative
writing which will end up reducing your
word counts declaratory means that the
actor of your action is clearly the
subject and it's clearly doing the
action now there are two really
problematic words that we often use as
subjects and we want to show you what
those are so that you can watch out for
them and eliminate them they're in it
they're the bad guys in the subject
category so when I use their as the
subject of a sentence it's not really a
person place or thing it's an abstract
concept it's not an actor doing the
action let me give you an example of a
sentence okay so this sentence is a
guideline meaning that this sentence
there are three ways we can reduce costs
is not grammatically incorrect
grammatically it's okay however it's
wordy and I don't tell who is doing what
this is a Wimpy subject so whenever I
see a subject at the beginning of my
sentence I want to circle it and cross
it out I'm gonna get rid of that there
let's rewrite the sentence using the
words that we've already got to express
a clear actor of action
now this is a good sentence we can
reduce costs in three ways can you hear
that it's decorative and it has a strong
clear relationship between the actor of
action which is the Wii and the actual
action which is can reduce we can reduce
costs in three ways eliminate severe
rewrite the sentence to show who did
what
plus we reduced our bird count by one
word and every word matters
now let me put up another bad guy
subject word and that is it again
generally it is a weak subject let me
give you an example in a sentence
okay so first of all I look at the
sentence that every time again I'm on
I'm on alert for there's and it's and I
look at the sentence and I go oh I've
got in it I am going to circle it now
I'm gonna do a word count and I've got
ten words in this sentence so I look at
that it and I ask myself is it
functioning is a person place or thing
it is important and it's not it's
functioning as a weak subject it is is
my verb weak relationship weak sentence
let's restructure the sentence to have a
clear powerful actor of the action Wow
I've just strengthened that sentence and
made it a declaration to seven so not
only am i helping the person reading the
sentence go from A to Z faster but I'm
writing in a more powerful way with a
much clearer description of what's going
on in the sense I answer that question
who did what so when you look at your
sentences you want to be on hyper alert
for theirs and it's functioning as weak
subjects now with it I want to also add
that sometimes and it can be a strong
subject let me give you an example
okay in this case I actually have two
sentences it's important to show you
that because well let's let's go ahead
and identify the it I'm gonna circle the
hitch and remember I'm on hyper alert
because this guideline says we want
strong subjects they're in it often or
weak I look at this it and I ask myself
is it functioning as a weak or a strong
subject well how I answer that is by
asking this question does the it have a
clear referent in other words is it
functioning as a clear pronoun in that
sentence and in this case it is we
bought the book it or in other words the
book is getting great reviews so in this
case it is a strong subject it's okay
it's functioning as a pronoun with a
clear reference
unlike the sentence that I wrote
previously that said it is important
that there was no clear reference for
that pronoun so as you're going through
and editing your work and your papers
take time to circle your there's
circular it's and ask yourself are they
functioning as a clear pronoun with a
referent if they're not they're weak and
wimpy and you need to make the senate's
strong by putting in a clear actor of
the action