5.2.2 VP: Voice
5.2.2 VP: Voice
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Intro: The most common sentence transformation is the shift between Active and Passive Voice. Active voice is the default verb voice because it is intuitive and easy to process by human brains. However, passive voice is common in academic and professional writing.
1.1 Verbs: active vs. passive voice.mp4Verbs: Active vs. Passive Voice
1a) I made a mistake. (Active Voice)
Notice that in this sentence:
I = NP1 = grammatical subject = agent (doer, actor) of the action denoted in the verb
a mistake = NP2 = grammatical object = patient (recipient) of the action
made = VP (past simple, active voice)
If a sentence with a transitive verb is organized in this order, then the verb is in its active voice, the unmarked (default) voice.
Note: LVP: long verb phrase = VP + all the following constituents
1.1 Verbs: active vs. passive voice.mp4
1b) A mistake was made [by me]. (Passive voice)
Notice that in this sentence:
a mistake = NP1 = grammatical subject/logical object = patient/recipient of the action
me = NP2 = object of preposition = logical subject = agent/doer of the action
was made = VP (past simple, passive voice)
by me = PP: Advl. (of manner); it can be omitted.
The subject of the sentence (a mistake) is the recipient of the action (made) denoted in the verb.
2. Long vs. short passive voices
Note that in the transformed sentences above, the PP: Advl. can be omitted.
If the PP: Advl. is omitted, the sentence is called a short passive sentence; otherwise, it is a long passive sentence. Whether to keep the PP: Advl. or not is up to the writer/speaker. If you do not want your readers/listeners to know the doer of an action, you can omit the PP.
2. long vs. short passive.mp43. When is passive voice preferred?
Microsoft Word clearly doesn't like the passive voice. Your English teachers must have warned you to avoid passive voice as much as you can. This is also one of the six rules of writing proposed by George Orwell.
George Orwell's Six Rules for Writing:
(1) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
(2) Never us a long word where a short one will do.
(3) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
(4) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
(5) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
(6) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
As a matter of fact, the passive voice is quite common in academic and professional writing. In the following cases, the passive voice makes our writing clearer and more coherent.
1) The evasive passive
3. when is passive voice preferred.mp42) An implicit agent is involved
3.2 implicit agent.mp43) The academic passive
1) If the the 'doer' of an action is obvious, irrelevant, or repetitive to state, then passive voice is preferred. e.g.,
One type of work group, the semi-autonomous work group, is discussed in a section later in this chapter. (It is obvious that it is the author who will be doing the discussing.)
2) If you want to emphasize the patient (who is receiving or experiencing the action) rather than the agent (who is doing an action), then passive voice is preferred. e.g.,
Active: Scientists classify glass as a solid.
Passive: Glass is classified as a solid. (The passive sentence focuses on how glass is classified than on who classifies glass.)
3) If you want to avoid using personal pronouns, then passive voice is preferred. e.g.,
The number of seeds found in ant nests was counted (by me/us).
4) If you want to highlight the most important events or participants in a sentence, then you can place them at the beginning of a sentence and change the verb into its passive voice. e.g.,
The hand washing practices of staff were observed by four members of the nursing staff during rostered shifts. Hand washing, or failure to hand wash, following patient contact was recorded. Leaving the area without hand washing was considered failure to wash. (Passive voice is used to avoid repeated reference to the doer of the action (the observers).
3.3 academic writing.mp44. When to use active and passive voices?
Rule of Thumb: Active voice is preferred over passive voice.
Questions to consider:
Must your readers know who is responsible for the action?
Those who are found guilty can be fined.
Valuable record should always be kept in a safe.
The president was rumored to have considered resigning.
Would the active or passive verb help your readers move more smoothly from one sentence to the next?
(2a) We must decide whether to improve education in the sciences alone or to raise the level of education across the whole curriculum. The weight given to industrial competitiveness as opposed to the value we attach to the liberal arts will determine our decision.
(2b) We must decide whether to improve education in the sciences alone or to raise the level of education across the whole curriculum. Our decision will be determined by the weight we give to industrial competitiveness as opposed to the value we attach to the liberal arts.
Would the active or passive give readers a more consistent and appropriate point of view?
(3a) By early 1945, the Allies had essentially defeated Germany; all that remained was a bloody climax. American, French, British, and Russian forces had breached its borders and were bombing it around the clock. But they had not yet so devastated Germany as to destroy its ability to resist.
(3b) By early 1945, German had been essentially defeated; all that remained was a bloody climax. Its borders had been breached, and it was being bombed around the clock. It had not been so devastated, however, that it could not resist.
4 when to use passive voice.mp45. Which auxiliary verb to use, be or get?
5. be vs get as the auxiliary verb.mp4To learn more about active versus passive voice, click and listen tp the podcast produced by the Grammar Girl.
PRACTICE:
PRACTICE:
Transforming sentences from active to passive voice:
Draw a complete tree diagram of the sentence:
Tom hit Jerry with a frying pan.
Transform it into passive voice.
Diagram the transformed sentence.
Compare the two tree diagrams and notice the changes in the transformation.
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