Yes, I am back with more and more on grammar and how you can improve your English, as a whole, through pronunciation, spelling, reading, writing and speaking.
Most of the learners of English that I meet are adults. They already know how to communicate in English very well. Generally, I find their questions harder to answer because they are so specific. One question that I am often asked is about choices of grammar in writing.
Yes, you can choose which type of grammar you want to use, depending on what or how you want to say something!!
The most common question I am asked is whether they should write their formal essays in the ACTIVE form or the PASSIVE form. For example, should the sentence be:
Grammar Girl wrote an essay. (ACTIVE)
OR
The essay was written by Grammar Girl (PASSIVE)?
This is a difficult question to answer and all I can say is that it depends on what you want to say, the type of writing, how clear you want to be OR on how much information you have.
Except in scientific journals or police reports (and I am neither a scientist nor a police woman), I prefer the ACTIVE voice. I would say that you should use active voice whenever possible. The active voice means the subject is performing the verb. The ACTIVE voice is a bit more modern, clearer, more concise, more concrete.
In most non-scientific writing situations, the active voice is preferable to passive for the majority of your sentences. Even in scientific writing, the overuse of passive voice or use of passive voice in long and complicated sentences can cause readers to lose interest or to become confused. Sentences in active voice are generally–though not always– clearer and more direct than those in passive voice. The passive voice is BORING (I think :-))
But let’s not neglect the passive voice completely.
In scientific writing the passive voice is more readily accepted since using it allows one to write without using personal pronouns or the names of particular researchers as the subjects of sentences. This practice helps to create the appearance of an objective, fact-based discourse because writers can present research and conclusions without attributing them to particular agents. Instead, the writing appears to convey information that is not limited or biased by individual perspectives or personal interests.
I won’t recommend any particular website to help you with the active or the passive this week because I believe the choice is yours. Free your grammar.
Grammar Girl
