1 / 18

Jane R. Walpole, "Why Must the Passive Be Damned?"  College Composition and Communication , 1979

Jane R. Walpole, "Why Must the Passive Be Damned?"  College Composition and Communication , 1979.

zoie
Download Presentation

Jane R. Walpole, "Why Must the Passive Be Damned?"  College Composition and Communication , 1979

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Jane R. Walpole, "Why Must the Passive Be Damned?" College Composition and Communication, 1979 "The passive should be recognized as a quite decent and respectable structure of English grammar, neither better nor worse than other structures. When it is properly chosen, wordiness and obscurity are no more increased than when the active voice is properly chosen. Its effective and appropriate use can be taught.“ (http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/pasvoiceterm.htm)

  2. The “Passive Voice” Speaks Up The Revenge Part II

  3. PASSIVE VOICE Wordy sentences Can be confusing Indirect Weak verbs ACTIVE VOICE Concise sentences Clear Direct Strong verbs The EPIC Match-up VS.

  4. PASSIVE VOICE The barbell was lifted by the stickman. ACTIVE VOICE The stickman lifted the barbell. The EPIC Match-up VS.

  5. Identifying Active Voice VS. Passive Voice • ACTIVE VOICE = • Actor + Active verb + Object • PASSIVE VOICE = • Object + Passive verb + (By + Actor)

  6. How to Identify the “Passive Voice” • The one that performs the action • Sometimes anonymous/unknown What/who is the Actor? What/who is the object? • The one that receives the action • Always present

  7. How to Identify the “Passive Voice” Passive Verb= Form of “to be” + Past Participle (-ed verbs) Passive Verb= “Had been” + lifted (regular) Passive Verb= “were” + taught (irregular)

  8. How to Identify the “Passive Voice” What’s the passive verb in the following? The invisible ice cream cone was eaten by the cat. http://www.boxdogbikes.com/blog/?p=168

  9. How to Quickly Identifythe “Passive Voice” Did you use the word “by”? Where is the actor? Where is the object? Any “passive verbs”?

  10. DON’T use “Passive Voice”… • When the actor is important • When the sentence is wordier or confusing

  11. Examples of Bad “Passive Voice” in Action The students are taught about passive verbs by the teacher. Why was the road crossed by the chicken? My homework got lost. http://fermentation.typepad.com/fermentation/2008/06/why-did-the-chi.html

  12. DO use Passive Voice • When the actor is unknown, anonymous, or unimportant • To emphasize the object or action • To be more polite or subtle

  13. Examples of Good “Passive Voice” • I find a duck's opinion of me is very much influenced by whether or not I have bread. -Mitch Hedberg (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mitch_Hedberg) • Three grams of reagent “A” were added to a beaker of 10% saline solution. • A mistake was made.

  14. How to Revise for Active Voice • Identify the passive voice (object, passive verb, actor) • Move the actor to front • Move the object to the back • Conjugate the verb to match as closely to the meaning of the original sentence as possible

  15. We want YOU to decide. http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/groups/west-london/blog/we-want-you

  16. Ask yourself while revising for active/passive voice… • Am I being concise? • Does my sentence make sense? • What do I want people to pay attention to? • What is your purpose for writing? • Who is your audience?

  17. Homework • Find at least five examples of passive/active voice in either your own writing or someone else’s. • Make sure to cite your sources. • Bring them into class. It will be your ticket into the literature circles.

  18. References The Writing Center: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (1998). Passive Voice. Retrieved November 13, 2010, from http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/passivevoice.html Capital Community College Foundation. (2004). The Passive Voice. Retrieved November 13, 2010, from http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/passive.htm Heaps, Stacie. (1996). Active and Passive Voice. WriteExpress. Retrieved from http://www.writeexpress.com/active-passive.html MyEnglishTeacher.net. (2001). Irregular Simple Past and Past Participle Verb Forms. Retrived November 13, 2010, from http://www.myenglishteacher.net/irregular_verbs.html Jerz, Dennis G. (2008). Active and Passive Verbs. Retrieved November 13, 2010, from http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/grammar/act-pass.htm

More Related