A few years ago someone in ATEG, I think Brock Haussamen, started
collecting teaching tips that he posted on the ATEG web site.  I offered
one learning to use passive voice that you can find at
http://www.ateg.org/grammar/tips/t7.htm.  It approaches the problem with
a little reverse rhetorical engineering.  Give groups of students in a
class different forms of the same proposition, an active, a passive, and
an agentless passive and ask them to write a story that ends with the
particular sentence they were assigned.  I've found this stimulates
useful discussion of why we use one or another of the forms and how they
can be used appropriately.  Note the passive in that sentence.  I've
found this works better than a prohibition or a grammatical analysis.

 

Herb

 

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Linda Comerford
Sent: 2008-03-07 15:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: past perfect--a final note

 

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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