Image acquired from the Internet Hive Mind, in particular “We Know Memes”
Ever heard of a Copula Spider? … yeah, neither had I under I read Melissa Gilbert’s April 29, 2016 post on Magical Words. A copula is a linking verb – with the worse offender being “to be” … or in editing the dreaded “was”.
Read about them in the blog (link below) and then burn them from your writing!
Side note, Melissa Gilbert’s publishes under the name Melissa McArthur.