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
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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