The difference between grammar and usage is important to recognize. If you have a grammar mistake, you’ve written something that breaks the rules that govern the relationship between words in English. It’s a problem that ought to be fixed.
But if you have a usage issue, you’ve written something that isn’t grammatically in correct per se, but isn’t as efficiently communicated as it could be.
One of the most common usage issues is dead, redundant, or otherwise meaningless words, the worst offending examples of which are “there is/was” and “there are/were.”
In formal written English (or in any English that strives to engage and retain readers), starting your sentence with “there is” is about the worst plan around. Not only does “there is” merely tell you that something exists, but it’s also pretty vague about what is existing. You’re making your reader wait until at least the third word of the sentence to figure out what you’re talking about.
When you write,
There was a woman who checked out too many library books.
nothing has actually happened in the sentence. A woman exists. A woman exists “there.” Yawn.
Why not start the sentence with the woman? And instead of mentioning her existence, why not say what she’s doing? In all kinds of writing, “there is” can easily be trimmed away to improve the sentence.
Instead, write this:
A woman checked out too many library books.
Brilliant! A masterpiece of efficiency and concision! By removing the dull “there was,” you’ve made this sentence both active and shorter–traits to be desired in good usage.
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