Why My High School Teacher Banned Linking Verbs
Why My High School Teacher Banned Linking Verbs
And when he finally freed me from my shackles
I was taught English under unusually confining circumstances. But perhaps no struggle throughout my high school career was more arduous than the circuitous lengths I needed to go in order to avoid linking verbs.
And for those who don’t know what linking verbs are — an apparent majority of those who grew up outside of my small Suburban PA district — I include the following diagram:
In nearly every regard, the English education I got in high school soared well beyond anything my college professors ever provided me, but the one issue that’s only perplexed me more and more as years have gone by was our high school’s fervent insistence that linking verbs be avoided at all costs.
For entire years, the matter gnawed at me. Each time I wrote the word “is,” or “are” on a page, it was with the subtle knowledge that an entire English department full of teachers was shaking their heads in quiet and unanimous disapproval.
In search of long overdue closure, I reached out to my former English teacher to get to the bottom of his department’s restrictive ways. Below are excerpts of our conversation. I’ll be referring to him as Mr. Is.
Me: I was eager to ask you about some of the things we talked about in your class. One of the issues I’m most curious to get your thoughts on is linking verbs. Leaving high school, i’ve been shocked at how much of an emphasis CHS put on avoiding those! I’ve even had college english professors not know what linking verbs were when asked. What are your thoughts on why it’s useful to avoid them? And do you still feel that formal writing is best without them?
Mr. Is: With regard to linking verbs — [my eleventh grade teacher we’ll be referring to as Mr. Be from here forward] used to coach men’s basketball at Haverford College. He’d pitched in the minors, and had a great breaking ball, so he knew what he was talking about. Every spring, he’d paint a bucket of baseballs — one hemisphere of each black, and leave the other half white. When he taught his pitchers how to grip and release the ball, they knew right away if they were doing it right or wrong. Black and white all the way to home plate — right. Gray — wrong. Once they internalized the skill, they didn’t have to rely on paint anymore. It’s the same, in my opinion, with linking verbs. Go cold turkey, learn to write without them. Then, when you’ve mastered the skill, by all means, use them when you need them. Linking verbs afford most writers an easy way out of completing their thoughts — their sentences become little more than equations: “this-is-that.” But if you’re good, you can make them work.
By the way, I’m firmly in the Orwell camp. My two rules for teaching writing: 1. Never use three words if two will do. 2. Never use a big word if a little one will do.
But this is just another Mr. Be curve ball. Once you can write clearly and simply, then your own personal style can flourish. Baroque can be good in a good writer’s hands.
Me: I consider my high school English education far better than anything I ever found in college. The one issue that I still look back on as fairly rigid is the linking verbs. I did really enjoy that Mr. Be baseball analogy, though! Do you know offhand if the linking verb restrictions were something a bit unique at CHS? Was that a way that English was ever taught to you? I’d be pretty curious to hear if you think my not-so-irregular use of linking verbs detracts from my writing.
Mr. Is: In my opinion, the linking verb “ban” was a restriction rather than rigid. The same way that a sonnet restricts the writer, for example. I was the only culprit vis a vis linking verbs, though. I brought that to CHS with me. Mrs. Was and a few others, I think, picked up on it, though. The best English teacher I ever had taught us that, and I found it fantastically useful. My writing, my sentence structure, and my thinking changed instantly for the better. Read and enjoyed your Orwell piece. Linking verbs absolutely not an issue. (You’re officially free from the ban, by order of your senior AP Lit teacher.) Btw, I also think chthonic is a wonderful word…. Not surprised at all that your HS English teachers had more of an impact than their college counterparts. I was the same, and it’s why I liked teaching high school students so much more than college students. That’s just me, though.
And with that cathartic, formal decree of my former pedagogue, I felt the weight of four quasi-traumatic years suddenly lifted. The shackles of a near half-decade of linking-verb-related restrictions suddenly dissipated into a linguistic oblivion. I was free to travel sesquipedalian seas. The bygone days of avoiding “is” and “are” could finally be compartmentalized into a closed chapter of distant days gone by.
I’d proven my worth in the eyes of the great Mr. Is and — for passing his final test — was granted the right to his very name. I am grateful — for all words are my friends. Whether they be an “is” or a “was,” I’ve finally been awarded my hard-wrote linguistic right.
I had to go and look up linking verbs when I saw it in your other post. I think writing an article without using "to be" is a good exercise every month or so. It's just a boring verb. However, the trick is to write an article that doesn't sound forced but doesn't use "to be." I like the anecdote about baseball, but I'd still like to see some examples of a statement written with linking verbs and one without. Looking at the list, I feel as if I do use them. Sometimes it's revealing to do a search in your own text and see what you turn up. Nice article! You should consider doing an article on linking verbs for The Writing Cooperative.
Two comments:
1) I had a HS teacher obsessed with commas. It messed me up. The class should have been called "Commas; where to place them and when to second guess their use." I still, have no idea, how to, correctly, use commas.
2) "Never use a big word if a little one will do," then "chthonic"‽ What the hell?