
Bald and Bloviating
A nonpartisan bald news junky dissects top stories and rants about their implications, along with other personal, science, and tech discussions.
Bald and Bloviating
It Is John McWhorter's Achilles' Heel
In this solo episode of Bald and Bloviating, host Mookie Spitz riffs on his linguistic pet peeve: the overuse of the passive voice. Prompted by a recent media blitz from linguist John McWhorter—whom Mookie once emailed with unsolicited writing advice—this episode dives into why phrases like "it is" and "there was" weaken prose. Drawing inspiration from a long-forgotten middle school teacher and Dickens’ famous opening, Mookie makes a passionate, funny case for active voice as the secret to strong, intentional writing.
The blog emailed to John:
https://medium.com/@mookiespitz/avoid-the-biggest-most-common-writing-mistake-dc859b9f8414