The passive voice, in this case, is unnecessarily wordy and clunky. It is more concise (shorter), more direct, and stronger. In this very simple sentence, the active voice is the better choice. Passive: “The ball was chased by the dog.”.The passive sentence is unnecessarily wordy and clunky. It clearly states what the authors have contributed in their article. It is cleaner, clearer, and more concise. In this case, the active voice sentence is the stronger, preferable choice. Passive: In this comparison of recycling standards in the EU, Australia, and the U.S., it is demonstrated that a country's recycling performance can change significantly depending on which standard is applied.demonstrates that a country's recycling performance can change significantly depending on which standard is applied. Active: This comparison of recycling standards in the EU, Australia, and the U.S.When to use active voice Strong, short sentences Example 1 These verbs are not needed in active sentence constructions, which is one main reason why many people say that active sentences are stronger and more concise. This is called a “helping” or “auxiliary” verb because it helps to complete the sentence (you can't say “My car was stolen on Sunday night”). You'll notice something about the passive examples above: Both use a form of the verb “to be” – in this case, the past form “was” (“was used,” “was approved”). Thus, the passive voice sentence is acceptable and appropriate. Again, as in Example 1, the authors of this article are emphasizing aspects of their methodology, one of which is their software choice. (Learn more about which person to use when writing.) Choosing the passive voice is an easy way to avoid having to make a decision about using the sometimes-questionable word “we.”Īctive option 2, which uses the third person (“the researchers”), is grammatically correct but sounds a bit awkward. The first option is grammatically correct, but some researchers/writers and journals prefer to avoid the use of the first person. In this case, the active options may be problematic for different reasons.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |