At 08:31 PM 2/14/06 -0500, Martha Krieg wrote: > Avoiding the passive may be an American fad... but I remember being > taken to task for using it back in the mid-70s when writing my > dissertation.
At one time, there was an American fad for writing *entirely* in the passive voice. When a writer is well and truly hooked on the "impressive formality" of all-passive constructions, the only cure is cold turkey. The remains of the reaction are fossilized in "grammar checkers" that flag passive constructions -- and every use of the verb "to be" for good measure -- as errors. Exercise for the reader: count the passive constructions in both the quote and my response. -- Joy Beeson http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/ http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/ http://n3f.home.comcast.net/ -- Writers' Exchange west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A. To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
