March 21, 2007
Eschew the Passive Voice
How could anyone who blogs under the title As I Please resist an article called "George Orwell’s 5 Rules for Effective Writing"? I was drawn to it like an alley tom to catnip.
John Wesley draws upon George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language," perhaps the most well-known essay written by the man considered by many to be the finest essayist in the English language, at the very least since William Hazlitt. Orwell closes his essay with six rules, and Wesley takes all six of these rules and expands upon them in his own words.
I was particularly tickled to read this:
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
This one is frequently broken, probably because many people don’t know the difference between active and passive verbs. I didn’t myself until a few months ago.
It seems as if Wesley still isn't quite up to speed with the concept.
In any event, here at As I Please we are happy to see almost anything that promotes George Orwell's reknown as an essayist.
Posted by abostick at March 21, 2007 05:19 PMHee hee... The passive voice should be avoided?
Posted by: Mark Gritter at March 21, 2007 05:49 PMJust so.
Posted by: Alan Bostick at March 21, 2007 05:54 PMIt's one of those cases where the real rule is "know what you're doing." If the agent is the important part of the sentence, the passive is either wrong or strategic. ("Mistakes have been made; others will be blamed.") If the object is the important part and it doesn't matter who's doing it, the passive should be used.
Posted by: Arthur D. Hlavaty at March 21, 2007 06:15 PMI loathe passive constructions. I have single-handedly managed to break several people (academics, no less) of the habit, mostly by scrawling "DTPC!" (death to passive constructions) in the margins of their work. Alas, I struggle mostly in vain.
Posted by: Narya at March 25, 2007 03:47 AMAnd another thing. I found, in my own writing as well as in the writing of others, that getting rid of the passive voice forces me to figure out who is really doing what; it's that whole process of identifying agency.
Posted by: Narya at March 25, 2007 03:50 AM
