Better Sentence Beginnings

Avoid starting sentences with “It” and “There.”

It is …  It was …

There is …  There are …

There was …  There were …

All of these are vague ways to start a sentence.

Why? You make your reader guess what you mean by using “It.”

It what? What is it?

Using “There” is also rather useless. Think about it. What’s the difference between these two sentences?

1. There were ten people standing in line.
2. Ten people stood in line.

Answer: Nothing—except the first one has the sluggish “There were” at the beginning.

All “There is/are/was/were” does is point to something, which means the effect is almost like walking up to someone and saying, “I am going to talk to you now,” instead of just talking to the person.

There is always a better way to begin a sentence.

Oops!

A better way to start a sentence always exists!