To be verbs and avoiding 'was'

We discuss passive voice often at our meetings (some people even count the number of times was is used). Here's a neat explanation:

8. Am/Is/Are/Was/Were (“to be” verbs)
Action verbs are always preferable to state-of-being verbs. Use words that describe the action occurring. Rather than saying what something/someone is, show the reader what something/someone does.

Example: “I am envious of her success.” This can be revised as “I envy her success.”

Example: “She was dressed in leather chaps and a flannel shirt.” This can be revised as “She wore leather chaps and a flannel shirt.”

The above is from snippet is from

10 over used words - see the rest are here.

http://preciseedit.com/Article10OverusedWords/tabid/215/Default.aspx

To comma, or not to comma.

We often have discussions, sometimes disagreements, about the use of commas.

I found this link to six rules for using commas. Click here.

Do these make sense? Is that all there is to it?