tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8983386.post7607343859298847217..comments2024-03-12T04:51:46.468-05:00Comments on Blue Gal: Passive voice is not a luxury. It is a crime.Fran / Blue Galhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18293627981248346055noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8983386.post-34059883035674406742007-03-21T19:57:00.000-05:002007-03-21T19:57:00.000-05:00I'm laughing my ass off!I'm laughing my ass off!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8983386.post-45016782804659399942007-03-06T00:26:00.000-06:002007-03-06T00:26:00.000-06:00the consistency of good writing is often the hobgo...the consistency of good writing is often the hobgoblin which is proferred by small minds...<BR/><BR/>oh, sorry, that's the passive <I>agressive</I> voice...skippyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962670107823271639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8983386.post-77839559684812238242007-03-05T17:10:00.000-06:002007-03-05T17:10:00.000-06:00Regarding the BS about avoiding the passive voice....Regarding the BS about avoiding the passive voice... A snippet of a longer piece from LanguageLog.com:<BR/><BR/>http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/003380.html <BR/><BR/>How long have we been avoiding the passive, and why?<BR/>July 22, 2006<BR/><BR/>[...] George Orwell's 1946 article "Politics and the English Language" [...] firmly instructs us: "Never use the passive where you can use the active." [...] the injunction was a commonplace in college writing handbooks in the 30s and 40s (in the U.S., anyway) <BR/><BR/>[...] it's likely that [Orwell's] very influential essay brought Avoid Passive to a much larger audience than it had before; no doubt Strunk and White's equally influential Elements of Style (1st ed. 1959) helped spread the word in the U.S. Eventually, Avoid Passive becomes a central element in the ideology of English writing style.<BR/><BR/>But where DID it originate? <BR/><BR/>Fowler (1926) shows no animus against the passive, nor do the great American grammar ranters of the late 19th century, Richard Grant White and Alfred Ayres. Hall's (1917) survey of disputed usages doesn't mention Avoid Passive or anything like it. Something seems to have happened (possibly only in the U.S.) in the first two decades of the 20th century [...] in the 30s we see handbooks characterizing the passive voice as a weakness to be avoided. <BR/><BR/>[...]<BR/><BR/>Every so often, an author will perceive some infelicity in student writing [...] and a new injunction will find its way into a handbook. And probably then propagate to other handbooks. This is quite likely what happened with Avoid Passive. <BR/><BR/>[...] Several people have suggested to me that overt opposition to passives is much less strong in the U.K. than in the U.S., and that in fact passives are more frequent in formal speaking and writing in the U.K. than in the U.S. [...]<BR/><BR/>Posted by Arnold Zwicky at July 22, 2006 08:11 PMAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8983386.post-85633275409520713642007-03-04T21:41:00.000-06:002007-03-04T21:41:00.000-06:00How about a tee-shirt with the phrase "I'm with th...How about a tee-shirt with the phrase "I'm with this talibangelical douchebag" and under it, an arrow pointing to the right? Hot item?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8983386.post-22594153381011272322007-03-04T12:14:00.000-06:002007-03-04T12:14:00.000-06:00Writing in 3rd person is still okay, right? Evil S...Writing in 3rd person is still okay, right? <BR/><BR/>Evil Spock is just checking . . .Evil Spockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09061028012716806630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8983386.post-67843029433539146152007-03-04T10:09:00.000-06:002007-03-04T10:09:00.000-06:00I hope this isn't serious!The passive voice is per...I hope this isn't serious!<BR/><BR/>The passive voice is perfectly suited for many things. (Oh, gosh, sorry. Many things find the passive voice to be ... (Oh gosh. There are many things you can only say well using the passive voice.))<BR/><BR/>Frequently I find those who rail against the passive can't even recognize it. (Oddly, even some who defend can't recognize it - I have in mind a BBC article about writing news for children that said "We use passive constructions ("Five girls have died", not "The man went in and shot five girls")" - that's not passive.)<BR/><BR/>But even if you can tell what it is, you can't claim it should never be used. You even used it yourself (If you are tempted...).<BR/><BR/>Passive can of course be overused and misused, but I find those who rail against it don't understand it. I've written a lenghty post (<A HREF="http://thegreenbelt.blogspot.com/2006/09/virtues-of-passive-voice.html" REL="nofollow">the virtues of the passive</A> which I invite you to read and comment on.The Ridger, FCDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01538111197270563075noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8983386.post-58737557754847047342007-03-04T09:53:00.000-06:002007-03-04T09:53:00.000-06:00Heh. I had a debate coach who would very ludly an...Heh. I had a debate coach who would very ludly and theatrically pretend to fall asleep anytime someone dared to use the hated "passive" voice. As she used to say, "There is NOTHING passive about forensics."The Local Crankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16673363936902590966noreply@blogger.com