To quote Benjamin Franklin from the play and movie "1776": "A rebellion is always legal in the first person, such as 'our rebellion.' It is only in the third person - 'their rebellion' - that it becomes illegal." The actual Franklin said, "Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God."
No, it isn't. Not like Esperanto or Klingon or something. It's a subset of English that forgoes the present and past-tense "to be" verbs. "Will" and "shall" are the only means English has to express future tense, so e-prime keeps those.
I did my master's thesis on e-prime, and I spent a year writing columns for the student newspaper and other stuff (including my thesis) in e-prime. It was a bit of a headache at first, but once I got used to it there was no problem. My friends hadn't even noticed; it didn't make my writing stilted or excessively wordy.
E-prime makes you take responsibility for what you say. Rather than saying, "He's a jerk," you have to explain why you dislike the person in question.
Having been away from academe for more than two decades, though, I've gotten out of practice.
I used to watch this on the CBS affiliate in western Kansas when I was a kid (late '60s, early '70s). When the affiliate stopped running "Skippy," I was angry and heartbroken. Still, I don't know that I'll look at it again; some memories deserve to remain good ones.
If you're interested in homemade haiku and short fiction, head over to catsignal.com. It's posted under a Creative Commons license so you can share your favorite stuff easily.
E-prime makes you take responsibility for what you say. Rather than saying, "He's a jerk," you have to explain why you dislike the person in question.
Having been away from academe for more than two decades, though, I've gotten out of practice.