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Adrian’s Easy Grammar Tips: ACTIVE PHRASING

Hello and Happy Writerly Wednesday!

Adrian J. Smith is a writer and editor who has a not-so-secret love of grammar. Miranda and TB had the pleasure of meeting AJ at GCLS last summer, and the three instantly hit it off. Not only is Adrian kind and funny, but she loves helping authors improve their craft. We’re thrilled that Adrian has agreed to share quick and easy grammar tips for all of us to up our game. Sidenote, while crafting this edition, TB misspelled grammar on 3 separate occasions, so she’s got her notebook and pen ready to soak up every tip. In fact, she chose today’s topic because she had to Google it just a couple days ago.

Let’s bring on tip #1!

Grammar Wednesday: ACTIVE PHRASING

Here’s your Grammar Wednesday! It’s about active phrasing and passive phrasing.

This is how it goes–in the easiest form. Look for the “was.” It’s mostly overused and the “have been.”

She was walking down the road.
She walked down the road.

She was leaning down to pick up a rock.
She leaned down to pick up a rock.

She had been having weird thoughts lately.
She had weird thoughts lately.

Get it?! I hope so. There are a lot of other ways to see passive phrasing. You can always go into MSword and turn it on. It’ll underline other passive phrases.

More about the author:

Adrian J. Smith has been writing nearly her entire life but publishing since 2013. With a focus on women loving women fiction, AJ jumps genres from action-packed police procedurals to the seedier life of vampires and witches to sweet romances with a May-December twist. She loves writing and reading about women in the midst of the ordinariness of life. Two of her novels, For by Grace and Memoir in the Making, received honorable mentions with the Rainbow Awards.

AJ currently lives in Cheyenne, WY, although she moves often and has lived all over the United States. She loves to travel to different countries and places. She currently plays the roles of author, wife, and mother to two rambunctious toddlers, occasional handy-woman. Connect with her on Facebook or on Twitter.

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