Passive Voice - Page 2

jon arbuckle

Canada443 Posts

May 03 2011 07:17 GMT

#21

Besides The Elements of Style, which has (probably) done more damage to even-handed discussion of grammar and style than any book in the past century, the general bitterness toward the passive construction stems from how the construction's usage tends to attempt to pass wordiness off as eloquence. Combined with overuse of demonstrative cases, this can produce papers that read thick, flabby, pedantic, and (in the rarest and sweetest of circumstances) like Yoda.

If you're writing in the sciences (generally), you're probably just conditioned to voice everything in the passive to remove yourself from whatever it is you're writing. If you're writing anywhere else, I dunnah. But it's cool that you're more conscious of this now.

Apropos nada I tried once to get some people to diagram sentences at a party for fun because they weren't impressed by my knowledge of Pokemon. They did not join me in diagramming sentences.

Endymion

United States3701 Posts

May 03 2011 07:21 GMT

#22

I don't think it's that unusual to be honest. Most of my english class in high school was aimed towards getting people to write in an active tense rather than a passive one, because everyone wrote in passive by default. Maybe it's just conflict between the literary world and the scientific one though, because I tend to prefer active voice in fiction while I prefer passive in lab reports or studies. Don't worry about it o.o

HULKAMANIA

United States1219 Posts

May 03 2011 07:30 GMT

#23

On May 03 2011 16:17 jon arbuckle wrote:Apropos nada I tried once to get some people to diagram sentences at a party for fun because they weren't impressed by my knowledge of Pokemon. They did not join me in diagramming sentences.

Oh, jon, jon, jon, there is so much about this little anecdote that confuses me. Basically what you're saying is that Pokemon trivia was your plan A for wowing your fellow partiers? And then, failing that, grammar?

jon arbuckle

Canada443 Posts

May 03 2011 08:01 GMT

#24

Although I do tend to go to parties with devised schematics for facilitating easygoing social interaction - builds orders to ensure that I won't be quiet in the corner, if you will, where I am like Jaedong intensely committed to setting the tone early on and guiding the consequent discourse - the conversation about Pokemon I believe began with a girl who said her boyfriend bailed on the party because he'd rather play "the new Pokemon game," which conversation eventually became my barraging a group of innocent non-Pokemon-playing recent grads with densely woven speech, panegyrics to Pokemon's quiet sophistication and whimsy, gnarled and convoluted clause after clause.

You'd think a group of recent grads from MFA programs, self-promoting "writers," would be more interested in talking shop re grammar, theory, poetry, etc. You would be very wrong about that.

HULKAMANIA

United States1219 Posts

May 03 2011 08:03 GMT

#25

Hanging around with MFAs huh? Well there's your problem right there.

kNightLite

United States408 Posts

May 03 2011 08:07 GMT

#26

Honestly I think your use of the passive voice is more indicative of your linguistic background than your personality. I know plennnty of passive-speaking egoists...they're called law students =)

I use the passive voice often myself. But I think that's mostly a bad habit picked up from my family. Most of them work in healthcare where you need to be very, very careful when you use direct objects...theres a big difference between saying "cancer killed him" and "he died of cancer".

I don't think you need to worry about it too much. Its like worrying about saying "hullo" instead of "hello". We all bastardize the english language as far as the british are concerned =P

jon arbuckle

Canada443 Posts

May 03 2011 08:14 GMT

#27

On May 03 2011 17:03 HULKAMANIA wrote:
Hanging around with MFAs huh? Well there's your problem right there.

Boy, that party wasn't a good place to talk gender performativity, lemme tell you...

Semipsyc

Korea (South)123 Posts

May 03 2011 08:32 GMT

#28

I know at times I would write passively. Honestly, I don't think it's wrong or anything, as long as you don't talk/write passively about yourself almost all the time, like for interviews and resumes, etc.

Also, you shouldn't think of yourself too passively, after all you were able to actively teach me how to play sc:bw so I can not be terribad in sc2

micronesia

United States24813 Posts

May 03 2011 10:29 GMT

#29

On May 03 2011 15:49 lvatural wrote:
You're the mod in law school right?

Um no. Not sure who you are referring to.

anatem

Romania1369 Posts

May 03 2011 12:22 GMT

#30

wow interesting discussion, it never occured to me that the tendency to write in the passive could be a problem in itself or be indicative of underlying problems

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