November 09, 2008

Grammar matters (regardless of my earlier title)

According to John Warriner in his complete course from 1986, "A verb is in the active voice when it expresses an action performed by its subject. A verb is in the passive voice when it expresses an action performed upon its subject or when the subject is the result of the action."

• The batter hit the ball. (Subject acting)
• The ball was hit by the batter. (Subject acted upon)

I try hard to use the active voice on the blog. My writing becomes passive sometimes. Or, I get passive in my writing sometimes. Bad examples. It's important to me to write well, especially in a somewhat published format like the blog.

Again, Warriner suggests that one should use the passive voice sparingly and avoid weak and awkward passives ... He continues on to give some examples about when it's "okay" to use the passive voice.

• Use the passive voice to express an action in which the actor is unknown.
• Use the passive voice to express an action in which it is desirable not to disclose the actor.

Does this work, then: The Joker was played well by this actor in 2008. Gosh, to turn that active would be easy, right? Yeah, that was the literal reading of his instructions; actor and action do not relate to acting whatsoever, it's just word usage.

• All the football tickets had been sold many days ago. (who did it?)
• Poor judgement was used in making the latest decision. (do not disclose who did it)

I think this grammar stuff is starting to make more sense again ... I sure do enjoy a good grammar discussion ...


Random photo from Flickr created by Slickr screensaver ...

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