viernes, 16 de diciembre de 2011

ACTIVE / PASSIVE VOICE

Usually, effective writing uses the active voice and shuns the passive. Nevertheless, some situations are awkward or inappropriate when expressed in the active voice. Certainly, these situations call for the passive voice.

But like most of the "rules" of writing (and many of the "rules" of grammar and usage) this one isn't really a rule. There are some times when the passive voice is appropriate, and some times when it is even needed.

In general, it is best to think of writing not as rule-driven, but rather as context-sensitive. Even if a "rule" is useful 99% of the time, rigidly applying it in the rare case where it isn't appropriate will undermine the effectiveness of your writing. I prefer to think of most of the so-called rules of writing as guidelines, some more generally applicable than others.

The rule against using the passive voice happens to be an appropriate guideline most of the time. You are more likely to write badly by ignoring it than by following it. But it's still better to make your writing choices consciously than to go on automatic pilot and let the "rules" do all your writing for you.


What is the passive voice, and what is it used for?

Verbs in English are inflected to show five main traits: person, number, tense, voice, and mood.

Voice is determined by whether the subject of the sentence is theagent or the receiver of the action of a transitive verb. (A transitive verb is one that takes a direct object.

I broke the window.

The boys ate all of the pie.

With the money from her mother's life insurance Diane bought a new car and took a trip to Europe.

In the preceding examples, which are in the active voice, the agent of the action is the subject of the sentence. But in the next set of examples, which are in the passive voice, the receiver of the action is the subject of the sentence.

The window was broken.
The window was broken by me.

All of the pie was eaten.
All of the pie was eaten by the boys.

With the money from her mother's life insurance a new car was bought and a trip to Europe was taken.
With the money from her mother's life insurance a new car was bought and a trip to Europe was taken by Diane.

Notice that when a sentence is written in the passive voice, the agent of an action can be omitted. That is part of the appeal of the passive voice to certain writers. If the writer wishes to obscure responsibility for an action, then the passive voice allows him to eliminate all reference to the person who committed the act. Think of how often statements coming out of the Nixon White House during Watergate were couched in the passive voice: e.g.,
Mistakes were made.

Even if the agent of an action is mentioned in a passive voice sentence, the emphasis is not on the actor, but on the receiver of the action. The subject slot in a sentence is the starring role. Anyone or anything relegated to a little sidecar of a prepositional phrase tacked on at the end of the sentence is not being emphasized at all.

The window was broken.
The window was broken by me.

All of the pie was eaten.
All of the pie was eaten by the boys.

In these sentences, the fact that the window was broken or thatthe pie was eaten sits front and center. In the examples without agents, no one in particular appears to be responsible for the broken window or the devoured pie. And even in the sentences where the guilty parties make an appearance, they do so in a way that does not call attention to them.

But sometimes the agent of an action needs to be omitted. For example, the textual conventions*** governing lab reports do not permit the use of the first person ("I" or "we") at all, and in fact any mention of the researchers, even in the third person, is frowned upon. Thus, lab reports are filled with clauses like these: the pigeons were observed over a period of three weeks; the subjects were divided into three groups; members of the control group were given a placebo. . . .

The reason for this convention is that science is supposed to be objective, and removing all reference to the researchers emphasizes that stance of objectivity. It's almost as if disembodied hands are performing the experiments, and disembodied eyes are observing the results.****

The use of the passive voice in lab reports also keeps the spotlight focused on the experiment itself, rather than yanking it over to the researchers. It's a matter of emphasis.

Now, here are a few passive voice sentences from earlier in this very article, and one from another article on this website:

~Notice that in these sentences, the fact that the window was broken and the pie was eaten sits front and center.

Anyone or anything relegated to a little sidecar of a prepositional phrase tacked on at the end of the sentence is not being emphasized at all.

Another problem with many English classes is that students are usually taught by teachers that think writing is "rule-driven."


Now watch what happens to my intended meaning and emphasis if I try to recast these as active voice sentences:

Notice that in these sentences, the fact that someone broke the window and someone ate the pie sits front and center.

When anyone or anything is relegated to a little sidecar of a prepositional phrase tacked on at the end of the sentence, then the writer is not emphasizing that person or thing at all.



ACTIVE / PASSIVE VOICE

ACTION VERBS


ACTION VERB
A verb is one of the most important parts of the sentence. It tells the subjects actions, events, or state of being. It is always found in the predicate of a sentence. A verb that shows action is called an action verb.
A HELPING VERB
A helping verb works with a main verb to help you understand what action is taking place.
A LINKING VERB

Linking Verbs

A linking verb connects a subject to a subject complement which identifies or describes the subject, as in the following sentences:

The play is Waiting for Godot.

In this sentence, the linking verb "is" links the noun phrase "the play" to the identifying phrase "Waiting for Godot," which is called a subject complement.

Some of us thought that the play was very good.

In this sentence, the verb "was" links the subject complement "very good" to subject "the play."

Others thought it became tedious after the first fifteen minutes.

In this sentence, the linking verb "became" links the subject "it" to the subject complement "tedious." The phrase "after the first fifteen minutes" functions as an adverb modifying the clause "it became tedious."

The cast appears disorganised and confused; perhaps Beckett intended this.

Here "appears" is functioning as a linking verb that connects the subject "the cast" to its subject complement "disorganised and confused."

The play seems absurd to me.

The subject "the play" is joined to its subject complement "absurd" by the linking verb "seems."

Linking verbs are either verbs of sensation ("feel," "look," "smell," "sound," "taste") or verbs of existence ("act," "appear," "be," "become," "continue," "grow," "prove," "remain," "seem," "sit," "stand," "turn").

Many linking verbs (with the significant exception of "be") can also be used as transitive or intransitive verbs. In the following pairs of sentences, the first sentence uses the highlighted verb as a linking verb and the second uses the same verb as either a transitive or anintransitive verb:

Linking
Griffin insists that the water in Winnipeg tastes terrible.

In this sentence, the adjective "terrible" is a subject complement that describes a quality of the water.

Transitive
I tasted the soup before adding more salt.

Here the noun phrase "the soup" identifies what "I tasted." "The soup" is the direct object of the verb "tasted."

Linking
My neighbour's singing voice sounds very squeaky despite several hours of daily practice.

In this example, the phrase "very squeaky" is a subject complement that describes or identities the nature of the "singing voice."

Transitive
Upon the approach of the enemy troops, the gate-keepersounded his horn.

Here the verb "sounded" takes a direct object, the noun phrase "his horn."

Linking
Cynthia feels queasy whenever she listens to banjo music.

In this sentence, the adjective "queasy" is a subject complement that describes Cynthia.

Transitive
The customer carefully feels the fabric of the coat.

Here the noun phrase "the fabric of the coat" is the direct object of the verb "feels" and identifies what the customer feels.

INTERJECTION

An interjection is a word that expresses a sudden, strong feeling such as surprise, pain, or pleasure.

An interjection is a word added to a sentence to convey emotion. It is not grammatically related to any other part of the sentence.

You usually follow an interjection with an exclamation mark. Interjections are uncommon in formal academic prose, except in direct quotations.

The highlighted words in the following sentences are interjections:

Ouch, that hurt!
Oh no, I forgot that the exam was today.
Hey! Put that down!
I heard one guy say to another guy, "He has a new car, eh?"
I don't know about you but, good lord, I think taxes are too high!

FOR EXAMPLE:

A: aha, ahem, ahh, ahoy, alas, arg, aw

B: bam, bingo, blah, boo, bravo, brrr

C: cheers, congratulations

D: dang, drat, darn, duh

E: eek, eh, encore, eureka

F: fiddlesticks

G: gadzooks, gee, gee whiz, golly, goodbye, goodness, good grief, gosh

H: ha-ha, hallelujah, hello, hey, hmm, holy buckets, holy cow,

holy smokes, hot dog, huh?, humph, hurray

O: oh, oh dear, oh my, oh well, ooops, ouch, ow

P: phew, phooey, pooh, pow

R: rats

S: shh, shoo

T: thanks, there, tut-tut

U: uh-huh, uh-oh, ugh

W: wahoo, well, whoa, whoops, wow

Y: yeah, yes, yikes, yippee, yo, yuck

PREPOSITION

A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in asentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition.

A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence as in the following examples:

The book is on the table.
The book is beneath the table.
The book is leaning against the table.
The book is beside the table.
She held the book over the table.
She read the book during class.
FOR EXAMPLE:

We get up in the morning.

We go to bed at night.

It’s always hot in summer.

The movie starts at two in the afternoon.

Autumn begins in September.

They were married in 1990.

Joe arrived after me.

It has not rained at all for two weeks.

Breakfast is served at seven o’clock.

Kevin and Joe have been in the same

class since first grade.

CONJUNCTION

A conjunction is a linking word such as and, or, but. Conjunctions are used to connect words or sentences.
Some words are satisfied spending an evening at home, alone, eating ice-cream right out of the box, watching Seinfeld re-runs on TV, or reading a good book. Others aren't happy unless they're out on the town, mixing it up with other words; they're joiners and they just can't help themselves. A conjunction is a joiner, a word that connects (conjoins) parts of a sentence.

Coordinating Conjunctions
AND, BUT, OR, YET, FOR, NOR, SO

Subordinating Conjunctions

A Subordinating Conjunction (sometimes called a dependent word or subordinator) comes at the beginning of a Subordinate (or Dependent) Clause and establishes the relationship between the dependent clause and the rest of the sentence. It also turns the clause into something that depends on the rest of the sentence for its meaning.

  • He took to the stage as though he had been preparing for this moment all his life.
  • Because he loved acting, he refused to give up his dream of being in the movies.
  • Unless we act now, all is lost.

Correlative Conjunctions

Some conjunctions combine with other words to form what are called correlative conjunctions. They always travel in pairs, joining various sentence elements that should be treated as grammatically equal.

  • She led the team not only in statistics but also by virtue of her enthusiasm.
  • Polonius said, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be."
  • Whether you win this race or lose it doesn't matter as long as you do your best.

ADJECTIVES

Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence. The articles — a, an, and the — are adjectives
PositiveComparativeSuperlative
richricherrichest
lovelylovelierloveliest
beautifulmore beautifulmost beautiful

Certain adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and superlative degrees:

Irregular Comparative and Superlative Forms
goodbetterbest
badworseworst
littlelessleast
much
many
some
moremost
farfurtherfurthest

With adjectives that end in -e, add -r to form the comparative, and -st to form the superlative.
For example:
Comparative Superlative
close closer closest
large larger largest
safe safer safest
wide wider widest
Some adjectives have only one syllable, end with a consonant, and have a single vowel before the consonant. With these adjectives, double the last lette before adding –er to form the comparative, and -est form the superlative. For example:
Comparative Superlative
big bigger biggest
dim dimmer dimmest
mad madder maddest
sad sadder saddest
Some adjectives have two syllables and end in -y. Wit these adjectives change the y to i. Then add -er to form the comparative, and -est to form the superlative.
For example:
Comparative Superlative
busy busier busiest
dirty dirtier dirtiest
happy happier happiest
pretty prettier prettiest