Download Changing Passive to Active

Changing Passive to Active
!
!
!
1. Identify and Highlight all To Be verbs:
am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been (Human Being works as a
noun, not verb)
Pay special attention to highlight contractions hiding To Be verbs
I’m, you’re, they’re, weren’t
2. Focus on the actor
3. Eliminate
4. Replace
5. Re-arrange
6. Make positive
TO BE OR NOT: AN E-PRLME ANTHOLOGY. D. David Bourland, Jr., and Paul Dennithom
Johnston, editors. San Francisco: Intemational Society for General Semanitcs, 1991. 185 pages.
$14.00 (softcover).
As technical writers, we continually strive for clarity. An accurate explanation of how a
software program functions enables the user to employ it more effectively. We try to show the
user what it does by using descriptive verbs; in this context most of us have discovered that verbs
of 'being' muddle the explanation, especially in the passive voice. E-prime, a system of writing
without the verb "to be," requires active choice and thus shows the true relationships between
subjects and objects.
For example, a typical instruction in a software manual might readIf a directory containing K9 database files is specified, the following
key to
message will be displayed: 'If you wish the files to be converted, press any
continue. Press CtrllBreak to exit and the files will not be converted.'
Rewritten into E-Prime, this instruction would read:
If you specify a directory containing database files, the K9 screen displays this message:
'To convert the files, press any key. To prevent file conversion, press Ctrl/Break. '
Not only does the E-Prime instruction more clearly explain the relationship between the
user' s actions and the program' s function, it also results in a 30 percent reduction in verbiage.
This anthology describes the E-Primes system of writing, which consists of a more
descriptive derivative of English that brings the user back to the level of first-person experience.
One of the book's twelve essays defines E-Primes asE'= E-e
Where E represents the whole of the English language, e represents the linguistic element "to be"
with all its inflectional forms, and E' represents a subset of English minus verbs of being.
Bourland coined the term E-Prime in the 1960s, though he had used the concept in his own
writing since 1949.
Linguists estimate that one English sentence in two employs some fonn of the verb "to
be" and most paragraphs have at least a dozen. The subtraction of "to be" influences the sentence
structures we choose-no passive voice, less use of the subjunctive mood, and fewer participial
usages. Actors re-enter the picture. To illustrate, "If I were king of the forest. .. " would become
"As king of the forest, I .. . ." Being queen for a day, she ... " would require recasting as "Crowned
queen for a day, she ...."
On the downside, however, eliminating all forms of "to be" results in a loss of the present
progressive. In E-Prime you cannot say "it is raining" and the altematives "it rains" or "it
continues to rain" sound awkward.
To Be or Not consists of three parts. Part 1, "E-Prime in Action," includes introductory
essays written by two English teachers after they discovered E-Primes and got rid of the "to be"
crutch. An essay by Paul Johnston presents us with his personal awakening to semantics.
Part 2, "Epistemological Foundations of E-Prime" includes essays on writing in E-Prime,
Is-less grammars, and using E-Prime as a tool for critical thinking.
Part 3, "Further Applications of E-Prime," contains a short story, demonstrating the use
of E-Prime in creative writing, and a linguistics thesis, showing its application to scholarly
works.
In "Getting Rid of the To Be Crutch," Ruth S. Ralph describes the concepts of general
semantics:
[Alfred] Korzybski believed that the verb to be causes serious communication
disturbances and other psychological problems for modem man [sic]. In his book Science and
Sanity, Korzybski referred to these problems as the "is of predication" and the "is of identity." In
both, he blamed the verb to be for misleading people into making untrue and unwarranted
statements ....
A pair of common enough sentence structures employ to be to tempt man [sic] into
mistaken value judgments. Korzybski called the Subject-linking Verb-Adjective sentence pattern
the "is of predication" and the Subject-Linking Verb-Noun sentence pattern the "is of identity."
A sentence like "Robert is stupid" exemplifies the first, while "Marcia is a genius"
demonstrates the second ....
"For example," he [Bourland] continues, "in a case where most people might judge
themselves harshly by saying, "I'm no good at math," I would advice them to say instead. 'I got
poor grades in sixth grade arithmetic," or "I did better in other subjects that I did in math."' ...
According to Dr. Bourland, "Using E-Prime can improve a person's outlook on life. Once
you realize that every time you say is you tell a lie, you begin to think less about a thing or
person' 'identity' and more about its function."
By "telling a lie" Ms. Ralph means that although certain "to be" statements tell facts (i.e.,
Mr. Thompson is my boss), they still prevaricate in that the sentence directs our attention away
from all the other aspects of Mr. Thompson's personality. It makes us believe that Mr.
Thompson's "bossness" takes precedence over anything else about him.
Most "to be" statements have the appearance of fact because the linking verb funtions as
a fulcrum or "equal" sign (i .e., Mr. Thompson = boss; Robert = stupid). But such "to be"
statements do not distinguish velifiable fact (Mr. Thompson is my boss) from the speaker' s own
opinion (Robert is stupid).
Is-less grammars discourage labeling (Joan is smart; Cleve is smart) and encourage fact
reporting (Joan makes $500,000 a year; Cleve scored 160 on an LQ. test).
One of the best works in this anthology, "Coping with Semantic Problems in Systems
Development" by Karen Ruskin, describes some of the benefits that ensued from persistently
using E-Prime in the development of a large, complex, real-time computer system. This essay
will grab the attention of software documenters.
Because one essayist contributed five articles to the anthology, some examples appear
more than once and seem somewhat redundant. Most of the contributors to this anthology had
previously published their essays in professional journals, and many included footnotes and
references to supplement their research. Lack of an index did not detract from the book's
usability.
Overall, this anthology introduces a dynamic concept that technical writers may adopt to
improve clarity and precision.
Retta Whinn
Kansas City