On 2026-11-03 Larry Kollar wrote: > As I’ve gone through UTP and started modernizing, > and finding (or all too often, recreating) lost utilities, > I noticed several quirks that bothered me—overuse > of “will” and “simply,” and lots and lots of passive voice. > I fixed those that I noticed as I went through the book, > but obviously missed a lot more.
Just a question: Do you intend to root out all use of passive voice? Not being a native English speaker, my qualifications to weigh in on this, admittedly are somewhat limited. But I wonder if the use of passive voice is somehow grating to the ears of native English speakers? I don't feel that myself, but again ...different backgrounds. As an example of one of your changes, you replace "The file is not changed until you save your changes" with "The file does not change until you save your changes" In the first formulation, it is indicated (more clearly, IMO) that it is an action that makes the file change (saving the file), so actually, I think that the use of passive voice is appropriate there. Duckgo'ing for "examples of passive voice in english" I get, e.g.: When to Use Passive Voice Passive voice can be useful in situations where the doer is unknown, unimportant, or when the action itself is more significant than the actor. It is often found in formal writing, such as scientific reports, where the focus is on the results rather than the researcher. Doesn't the UTP document fit that bill fairly nicely? It is arguably a scientific paper of sorts, describing the use of a complex computer program. Ultimately, it a question of whether the end goal of your project warrants the effort. ;) Regards, Morten
