OK, you’ve finished what seems like the endless process of writing your manuscript, whatever it’s for. Now, you’re supposed to edit it, but you never, ever want to read this thing again. Well, I’ll cut you some slack because it’s not such a great idea to edit something you’ve written directly after you’ve written it. However, there is one little thing you can do that doesn’t require rereading those pages that are crawling with dots. You can eliminate the passive voice.
The passive voice is explained in detail in the Syntax and Style pages. You can do this change without knowing what the passive voice is. Just know it’s not good writing, and it has to change.
Make a global search for this word: been. Wherever you find it, rewrite the sentence so that the verb doesn’t contain “been.” You’ll probably have to find the subject of the sentence in the body somewhere, usually after the verb and hidden in a prepositonal phase such as “by the teacher.” The subject, then, is “the teacher,” and the verb can now be active because someone is doing something.
For example:
The rotten kid has been punished by the teacher.
The teacher punished the rotten kid.
After you’ve done this easy step, pat yourself on the back and set the manuscript aside for a day or so. Then, you can read it for all the other stuff you need to do to make it easier to read and grammatically correct.
You can do the same with “be” and “being.” Remember in the search box to add a space before and after “be”; otherwise, you’ll get every word that starts with “be,” and that’s frustrating.
“The passive voice is explained in detail in the Syntax and Style pages.”
Congratulations! In the above sentence you have:
(a) flouted your own silly proscription of the passive voice,
(b) demonstrated that your rules for identifying the passive voice are incomplete, and
(c) used the passive voice to improve emphasis and cohesion, its main function in the language.
#1 Comment vom 08. May 2009 um 9:05 am
Yes, Nick, I did use the passive voice. Sometimes the passive is all right. In this case I felt it was better than having “the Syntax and Style pages” as the subject. As I’m sure you know in English nothing is hard and fast; it’s a slippery, treacherous language.
BTW, my “silly proscription” is not silly. Have you ever read a dissertation? Full of passive voice and b-o-r-i-n-g. Furthermore, I make no pretense that my pages are the complete grammar book.
Finally, I think it odd that you’re searching the Web to play “gotcha” rather than spending your time more productively.
#2 Comment vom 11. May 2009 um 8:13 am
The passive voice generally slows the reader down. Journalists are taught in J-school to eliminate it wherever possible. That doesn’t mean eliminating it altogether, but rather knowing when and how to use it more effectively. In my career I’ve proofed a lot of papers for academics — they do seem to love their passive voice and apparently think it makes them sound smarter. It just makes my eyes glaze over.
#3 Comment vom 11. May 2009 um 8:54 am