Is it bad to use the word "is" in a research paper?

Question

My English teacher says to not use "is", but I finding it almost to write certain sentences without using "is"...

impossible*

Answer 1

English teachers are subject to a lot of unfortunate diseases. One of these is a tendency to hand out hard-and-fast rules they don't understand completely. Very often these are rules that were handed down by one or more of these teachers' own English teachers.

Often strong prose will require strong verbs, and forms of the verb "to be" do not always supply the strength the writer hopes to employ.

That having been said, avoiding "is" can lead to stilted, awkward, forced or affected writing that may be difficult to read.

Here is the second sentence from the lead story in today's New York times:

"Mr. Putin’s announcement makes Mr. Medvedev, 42, who is now a first deputy prime minister, the overwhelming favorite to win the presidency in elections next March, when Mr. Putin is due to step down."

You'll spot "is" twice in that sentence. This is not some third-rate newspaper we're talking about. The writer is one of the foremost journalists in America, and the article was almost certainly vetted by at least two editors.

This is the second sentence from James Joyce's Ulysses, commonly considered the greatest novel written in the English language:

"A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently-behind him by the mild morning air."

Past tense rather than present tense, but the same thing for your teacher's purposes. "Is" can be found at random on most pages of this novel. I imagine the same is true for every single novel in the top ten or fifty of the greatest novels list. http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

Most teachers won't dock you for using the word "is" in a research paper.

You'll want to avoid the word with this teacher of course.

Answer 2

I don't know why any teacher would say you can't use is. For example, in your paper, when discussing your research, you might say something like ....this (refering to some information you have just discussed) IS contracted by... It seems odd that she would tell you not to use "is" at all.

Answer 3

well..using it alot can be bad and take away from your paper's creativity..I think she just wants you to find action verbs to replace it. you want a low action verb ratio in your papers to keep it interesting like 1:7...so one word out of every 7 is an action verb. You might even have to reword your sentences

Answer 4

Your teacher probably said not to use I's, as in "I think that . . ." or "In the research I performed . . ."

No teacher on the planet would restrict you from using "is."

Answer 5

No, based on the facts... , I am a research scientist and I AM A TEACHER, ALSO.