ENGL 0004 Chapter : ---
Document Summary
A basic step to good writing is to understand that there are two voices active and passive - in the. The active voice conveys power, while the passive voice conveys weakness, and generally a sign of weak writing. You should write in the active voice unless there is a good reason not to. Active-voicesentences are more interesting and are shorter than sentences written in the passive voice. Generally speaking, the subject acts in the active voice and receives action in the passive voice. The formal definition, which you should know, is that passive voice uses a form of the verb be and the past participle form of the principal verb. Examples of passive voice with past passive verb underlined: Note that active voice provides information on the doer of the action, while passive voice may or may not, which is a sign of poor journalism. Passive voice sentences don"t have to mention the doer, but they can.
