Battling over here in Germany to teach my students the use of the passive, I'm
beginning to wonder if it is worth the effort! Could someone  give some examples
of misused passives and  cludgy, overnominalized sentences with weak passives. I
can't imagine what a weak passive is and, although I'm quite used to seeing
overnominalization because of German interference, I'd be interested in seeing
what your students do to their mother tongue.

By the way, Of-genetives haven't been completely abolished, have they?
I'm beginning to wonder if I'm not missing out in some issues.

Patricia Reeve- De Becker.
Max Morenberg wrote...

>  And he/she (The advanced comp teacher) also could have pointed out that such
> > writing ( academic and business writing) often misuses passives and that
> writers should be careful about
> > both-cludgy, overnominalized sentences and weak passives.  It wouldn't take
> > much for a student to confuse the issues.
> ...
> >
> > Max Morenberg
> > English Department
> > Miami University
> > Oxford, OH 45056