SOSC 1510 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Prentice Hall, Word Processor

• School: York University
• Department: Social Science
• Course: SOSC 1510
• Professor: David Langille

Document Summary

Beginning or inattentive writers tend to overuse passive voice, which can weaken their prose, lead to the omission of important information, and make them appear unsure of their ideas. When instructors draw attention to the problem, some students overcompensate, eliminating all passive voice from their writing. Although many academic writers often favor active voice because it is direct and concise, both voices are useful and necessary. That is why the grammar check on word processing programs highlights all passive constructions it gives writers a chance to consider whether each choice is appropriate according to the purpose of the sentence. Understand how both active and passive sentences are structured: active voice: the subject of the sentence is the one doing the action, passive voice: the subject of the sentence is now being acted upon. The actor moves to the end of the sentence with by or drops off altogether if it is unimportant or unknown.