Deleting the 'is' and 'was' - possible or impossible? by Harini Nagendra

Look at your last book and count the number of times you used is, are, was, and were. Thoughts? Lessons learned? 

I must confess, the first time I saw today's question, I was very confused - what was wrong with using 'is, are, was and were'? Then I read some more. Many contemporary writing coaches and editors suggest that this entire set of words - all variants of the verb 'to be' - should be, if not deleted from one's writing vocabulary (which is clearly an impossible task), at least minimized. ...