Be-Verb Killer

Some of my writing students have called me the Be-Verb Czar (shouldn't that be Czarina?) because I deduct a half-grade for each overuse of any form of the verb "to be." One of my clever students wrote a blog post, "Glahn's Law," about it--and in the process did a better job than I of explaining my rule. If you like to write, you need to read this.