From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: RE: emacs documentation: what's active voice, passive voice? Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 09:48:01 -0800 Message-ID: References: <4ca8659e$0$50453$14726298@news.sunsite.dk><322eca01-3bf5-4078-9439-57ba9503afc6@k1g2000prl.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1291940599 21160 80.91.229.12 (10 Dec 2010 00:23:19 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2010 00:23:19 +0000 (UTC) To: "'Alan Mackenzie'" , Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Dec 10 01:23:15 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PQqlX-0007oz-D4 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 10 Dec 2010 01:23:15 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:60648 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PQqlW-0007gs-HK for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 09 Dec 2010 19:23:14 -0500 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=35210 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PQnc4-0005iE-Vd for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:01:37 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PQkcZ-0005uF-6V for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:49:36 -0500 Original-Received: from rcsinet10.oracle.com ([148.87.113.121]:27476) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PQkcZ-0005u5-1F for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:49:35 -0500 Original-Received: from rcsinet15.oracle.com (rcsinet15.oracle.com [148.87.113.117]) by rcsinet10.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.2) with ESMTP id oB9HnW0D006196 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Thu, 9 Dec 2010 17:49:33 GMT Original-Received: from acsmt354.oracle.com (acsmt354.oracle.com [141.146.40.154]) by rcsinet15.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.1) with ESMTP id oB9HnUdU007753; Thu, 9 Dec 2010 17:49:30 GMT Original-Received: from abhmt014.oracle.com by acsmt354.oracle.com with ESMTP id 860896021291916882; Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:48:02 -0800 Original-Received: from dradamslap1 (/130.35.178.194) by default (Oracle Beehive Gateway v4.0) with ESMTP ; Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:48:02 -0800 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 In-Reply-To: Thread-Index: AcuXXomDfHXnZG2bQRGRVEmjcYvIfAAaKqmA X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5994 X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:77102 Archived-At: > For technical writing, I favor active voice where > appropriate, but in some cases I think passive voice is > preferable. Consider, for example, "The parameters were > perturbed, and the test was run again." I could > rewrite that in active voice as "We varied the parameters > and ran the test again." But what if there is no "we", > only "I"? Then I would have to write "I varied the > parameters and ran the test again." That just > doesn't strike me as good style for a technical paper. The > point is not who did it but that it was done. What > difference would it make if a monkey did it, as long as he > did it right? Indeed. There is a lot of misunderstanding about the passive voice and where, when, and whether to use it. Some people learn grammar catechism in school, taking away the idea that banishing the passive voice will offer them a royal road to writing clearly. There is no royal road to writing, like Math. To write better, read more. Read, re-read, re-re-read, and read better what you've written (and rewritten...). This will help wrt the passive voice: http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/passivevoice.html