There's  a short article in The Washington Monthly that may be of some interest to list members; it's reporting on a study that found changing the wording of a question increased voting by 10% (link at end of this email; article includes link to full pdf of study report). The two question versions were as follows:

(a) How important is it to you to be a voter in the upcoming election?
(b) How important is it to you to vote in the upcoming election?

The more effective version was (a), which eliminates an "action verb" (albeit an infinitive form) and replaces it with "be" (also an infinitive).

If you find yourself dealing with a bad style handbook, especially a bad business style handbook, this kind of example is useful for shooting down the "always avoid 'be' verbs if you can" myth.

--- Bill Spruiell


http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2011/09/what_fourteen_magic_words_can032004.php

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