Nancy,
   I like the last part of your post the best. You're right; the passive
does tend to make writing impersonal. That is one reason, though, that
it shows up so much in scientific discourse. It doesn't matter who
heated the mixture for seven minutes at four hundred degrees, just that
it was done and can be replicated. (Notice the paasives at the end of
the last sentence.) Impersonal is not always good, not always bad, but
something we can benefit from noticing.
   I'm not as happy with the idea of "complete picture" because it assumes
that each and every sentence is a complete and separate statement, not
tied to discourse context or situation. If someone asks "how are you
doing with preparations for the party," you might very well say "the
cake is baked, but we need to pick up the drinks." The baker of the
cake may be already known or irrelevant.
   There are functional approaches to language that are highly systematic.
I think we need a comprehensive understanding of language before we
give out prescriptive rules (the old "first, do no harm" maxim.) I have
said on list many times that I feel a disinterested, primarily
descriptive linguistics cannot solve the problem. Because people want
advice on using language, they turn to the handbooks. It's hard to
blame people for doing that when they don't have a practical
alternative.
   Linda points out that "it"and "there" are often extra words, but they
are also highly functional ways to extrapose a subject into focal
prominence. "It is easy to love you." "There's more than one way to
skin a cat." Linda wants to help, but she is figuring it out for
herself on the basis of her own thoughtful understanding. It's a
daunting task.
    It's not a matter of finding practical ways to use a formal
understanding, but of recognizing that function is already built in.
We need to look at how language works. Since effectiveness is context
specific, we need to look at ways in which language is sensitive to
context. And by "sensitive to context", I don't mean just dialect and
social register, but interaction and the construction of shared
meaning.

Craig

> Like you, Linda, I work with a lot of people in the business community (as
> well as in the legal and judicial field). They want to know why their
> MSWord programs put green squiggly lines under every instance of the
> passive voice. They do not know (1) what the passive voice is or (2) why
> they are being advised to revise it.
>
> Here is what I tell them:
>
> First, I define the passive voice as a sentence in which the subject  of
> an active verb is also the recipient of that action.
>
> Second, I tell them that it is perfectly fine to use the passive voice
> (which usually launches a rant about all the other ways that MS Word
> misleads writers about "problems" in their writing).
>
> Third, I tell them that in many cases it is better to write in the active
> voice because passive voice sentences frequently fail to give the reader a
> complete picture. If I read "The cake was baked," the picture in my mind
> is fuzzy because there is no agent for that action. Good writing seeks to
> elicit a picture in the reader's mind that matches the picture the writer
> is trying to convey, and passive voice sentences often relay fuzzier
> pictures than active voice sentences--not always, but often, and for the
> writer who is getting a green squiggly line under nearly every verb in a
> document, this point is worth considering.
>
> Finally, I point out that many business writers use the passive voice to
> avoid using first-person pronouns--something they were taught to do back
> when the paradigm for businesseses was to maintain  professional distance
> from the reader. They will write, for example, "Your request has been
> deinied" or "Your cooperation is appreciated" to avoid saying 'We have
> denied your request" or "We appreciate your cooperation." It strikes me
> that sentences such as these last two active voice sentences are more
> personal (while still being professional), while the first two passive
> voice constructions seem more institutional and impersonal.
>
> Ed and Craig, do these points reflect a functional approach to language or
> a group (or personal!) prejudice?
>
> Nancy
>
>
>
> ---- Linda Comerford <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> In my business writing and grammar workshops, I strongly suggest
>> avoiding
>> passive voice when a sentence contains all the components of an active
>> sentence.  Those are normally the ones ending in a "by" prepositional
>> phrase.  Since people in the business world are so darn wordy (they tell
>> me
>> it's a habit from trying to fill those 500-word theme requirements), I
>> offer
>> them the challenge of looking to save 50 cents a word for every
>> unnecessary
>> one they use.
>>
>> So they'd save a dollar by changing the following passive sentence to an
>> active one:
>>
>> Passive:  The proposal was proofread by the partner.
>> Active;  The partner proofread the proposal.
>>
>> To find such passives, I have them use the Control F ("F" stands for
>> "Find")
>> feature in Microsoft Word to find the word "by."  They prefer that to
>> having
>> their grammar checkers simply indicating "Passive" without always
>> offering
>> the active version.
>>
>> By the way, the Control F technique works for finding any words students
>> use
>> too repetitiously.  Many struggle with using "that" unnecessarily.
>> Also,
>> one of my pet peeves is expletives, so I have my participants search for
>> "It" and "There" to identify and then eliminate them.
>>
>> I hope these tips help all of you too.
>>
>> Linda
>>
>> Linda Comerford
>> Comerford Consulting
>> 317.786.6404
>> [log in to unmask]
>> www.comerfordconsulting.com <http://www.comerfordconsulting.com/>
>>
>>
>>   _____
>>
>> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Edgar Schuster
>> Sent: Friday, March 07, 2008 2:05 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: past perfect--a final note
>>
>>
>> Craig may well be right about Orwell's sentiments; however, Orwell
>> himself
>> near the end of his essay offers a set of six "rules" (the word is his).
>> His fourth rule is "Never use the passive where you can use the active."
>>  He
>> doesn't say "where you can use the active" but not the passive.  But he
>> uses
>> passives in four of the first 15 sentences of "Politics," and it's not
>> at
>> all difficult to substitute actives for each them.
>> Hurrah for Craig's "we need a more functional orientation to language so
>> that choice can be built on something more than personal or group
>> prejudice."
>>
>> Ed Schuster
>>
>>
>> **************
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