Overuse of weak verbs "to be", "there is" or "have"

Don't overuse weak verbs, such as "to be", "there is/are", or "to have". When readers try to find out what is happening or being done, they naturally look in the verbs. If you hide actions in noun phrases, you make your readers work harder to interpret your meaning.

Overuse of the weak verb "to be" forces the action to become expressed as a noun phrase rather than as a verb. To correct this problem, search in the noun phrases to find noun (= nominalized) forms of verbs.

TO BE

Poor: The analysed characteristics were the dry weight (DW), the loss on ignition (IL), as well as concentrations of total phosphorus (Ptot), total nitrogen (Ntot) and total carbon (Ctot).   Better: The following characteristics were analysed: the dry weight (DW), the loss on ignition (IL), as well as concentrations of total phosphorus (Ptot), total nitrogen (Ntot) and total carbon (Ctot).

THERE IS/ ARE

Poor: There is no harm using cellular phones inside the hospital.   Better: Using cellular phones causes no harm inside the hospital.

TO HAVE

Poor: This has the tendency to make log browsing a tedious and ineffective process.   Better: This tends to make log browsing a tedious and ineffective process.