At the risk of seeming very ignorant or obtuse -- I am puzzled by Bob
Yates's citation of the definition of the passive voice from the web site,
Plain English.  It seems to me to be a good definition, especially
the statement that the passive voice in English is normally created with a
form of BE and a past participle.  Yet Bob seems to imply that there is
something wrong with the presentation.  ("It goes without saying that it
[this section of the web site] should be avoided," he says.)  Could he or
someone else clarify?

I'm interested because ignorance of the formal and notional nature of the
passive voice is a very common and serious problem for my students.  It is
complicated by the fact that they do not know what the forms of verb BE
are or what a participle is.  Now I'm beginning to wonder if I share their
ignorance!

David Mulroy
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee


On Tue, 30 May 2000, Bob Yates wrote:

> I wish that this were true, Brock.
>
> "Haussamen, Brock" wrote:
>
> >
> > I think one reason why the passive, like the split infinitve and the final
> > preposition, harden into grammar rules is that such constructions are easy
> > to spot; they are all essentially matters of word order.
>
> I suggest a visit to the Plain English site:
> http://www.plainlanguage.gov/
>
> On that page you will see a link to "Getting Started"  At that page you
> be directed to a link to WRITING USER-FRIENDLY DOCUMENTS. You will be
> directed to the on-line version. Go to section 12, Use Active Voice.
>
> Here you will find the following way to recognize the passive voice.
> (It goes without saying that it should be avoided.)
>
> The section begins with the following:
>
> In an active sentence, the person or agency who is taking an action is
> the
>  subject of the sentence. In a passive sentence, the person or item that
> is
>  acted upon is the subject of the sentence.
>
> . . . . . . .
>
> How do you identify passive sentences?
>
>  Passive sentences have two basic features, although both do not appear
> in
>  every passive sentence.
>
>       A past participle (generally with "ed" on the end); and
>
>       A form of the verb "to be."
>
>
> Bob Yates, Central Missouri State University
>