Download Active and Passive Voice

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE
Distance and Writing in Engineering Design Projects
David Z Fueger
EGR386w March 26, 2014
Why was the road crossed by the chicken?
• So the other side could be gotten to by the chicken!
• This is not funny
• The sing-songy element of the joke is lost
• Do not tell jokes with passive constructions
• Keep this in mind for your writing
What is voice?
• Voice is a manner of speaking and writing.
• Voice embodies tone through directness or indirectness.
• Voice is determined by the style of the author, the intended audience, and the
context for the document.
• Does voice matter? How can we tell?
3 Basic Elements of Voice – Think “Distance”
Central variables of distance in writing
• Agency or Acting Agent
• Verb properties
• Character of the sentence
Agency and Agentless Writing
• Passive Voice does not state an acting agent.
• “Your name should be added to payroll.”
• “Paychecks should have been dispensed to all employees.”
• Active Voice does state the acting agent.
• “Each employee should add their name to payroll.”
• “Human resources should have dispensed paychecks to all employees.”
The “Obvious” or “Implied Agent” in writing
• Author – Engineers, Specialists, Project Managers
• Within the discipline, when speaking or writing about action, the agent is usually assumed,
obvious, or implied by the context.
• Reader – Client/Society at large
• When reading, the acting agent may not always be assumed, obvious, or implied due to
lack of shared context with authors and their discipline.
Does anybody see a conflict here?
• Distance
Agency and Your Success Predicted
Distance Relationship Chart
Project Manager to Industry
Presentation Standards
Agent Specific Language
Very
Specific
Project Manager to Public,
CEO
Engineers to Project Manager
Line of Success for Engineers
Bureaucratic Chain
Enginners to Engineers
Not Specific
1
Very Low Context
Low Shared Context
High Shared Context
Context
Very High Context
Line of Success for Engineers
Line of Success =
[
% that you Care ^(you
trust what I say)
/
(%Paying Attention) X
(Your Writing Skills)
]^
Design Effectiveness
Your Writing Skills and Success
• Identification skills - Awareness
• Agency and agent
• Character of a sentence, parts of speech
• Verb awareness -- transitive verbs and –ed endings: “Determined, checked, reviewed”
• Roaming coefficient - Knowledge
• Your personal Lexicon or database of words
• Previous experience constructing sentences
Agency or Acting Agent – Active Voice
• Who is performing what action?
• Clarify the agent at beginning of sentence or paragraph
• Use agent-specific language: “Engineer, Client, Project Manager”
• What is the context?
• Shared (high) or not shared (low)
• Benefits of articulating Acting Agent in Active Voice
• Clarity!
• Shorter sentences
• If you are Acting Agent, you receive credit for your hard work and effort
Verb Properties
• Intransitive verbs – No Direct Object (no transition)
• He slept.
• She ran.
• Transitive verbs – Takes on one or more Direct Object (transition)
• She constructs______.
• The doctor alleviated_______.
• The man carries_______.
• She addressed_______.
• He ignited _______.
Sticky Verbs
• Transitive verb constructions without an agent will give you trouble, or confuse
or really bore your reader.
• Passive: “It will be divided…”
• Can change to Active: “Division will occur…” or “____ will divide…”
• Passive: “One controller will be programmed to directly control the robot, while another will
be programmed to control the claw system.”
• Change to Active: “Our technicians will program one controller to directly control the robot,
and another to control the claw system.”
Sticky Verbs continued, “–ed” endings
• Consider changing verb phrase "needs to be moved" into "movement“
• Passive: “The steering wheel needs to be moved before the lock engages.”
• Active: “Steering wheel movement must occur before the lock engages.”
• Consider changing "being used" to "use" or "in use“
• Passive: “During heating of the liquid, every heat element will be used.”
• More Active: “During heating of the liquid, every heat element will be in use.”
• Very Active: “Every heat element will be in use during the heating of the liquid.”
Character of the Sentence – Emphasis
When is passive voice acceptable?
• Authority – Passive Voice gives the statements more strength
• “No parking”
• Agent can be unimportant or irrelevant – emphasis on content
• “If you are late to work, you will be given a warning.”
• “Violators will be prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law.”
• “Only one carry-on item per person, as space is limited on the aircraft.”
• The above are universally recognized signs or notices
• When Writing across disciplines, such as Engineering Design, Agent is
relevant almost all of the time
Distance!
• Keep this in mind always
• How effective is distant writing?
• Ways to quickly identify passive voice
• “-ed” verb suffix
• The “by” test
• Can you identify areas where “by whom” or “by what” can follow the verb?
• Active Voice is a hallmark of successful technical writing
Agency and Distance Checklist
• Was the acting agent identified at the beginning of the paragraph?
• Does the agent matter? What content is most important in the sentence?
• If more than one acting agent, were each properly identified?
• If the agent changes, did you state the new agent?
• Consider the character and the verb of the sentence.
• If no agent, is it absolutely warranted or highly contextualized?
• Is the acting agent apparent before and/or immediately after?