Re: Taking active vs. passive voice too far

[Kathleen MacDowell <kathleen -dot- eamd -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I agree with Lynne and Duane about how to phrase things; otherwise it takes
extra effort to figure out "Access List Trends." While that's probably not
too confusing, other situations might be worse.

I agree with Mike too. But the main issue is how much time do you have to
make these changes and what the company wants done? While I've had
situations where I didn't receive clear directions from a manager, I still
had to consider other workload and how much time would be required for a
re-do, along with how important any facet would be. So you might be better
off doing a complete change, or you might be better starting with specific
aspects of the document. Decide what is most important to set standards
about, perhaps for the time being.

Kathleen


On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 9:45 AM, <M -dot- Vina-Baltsas -at- mindray -dot- com> wrote:

> I'm working with a manual that was primarily written in the passive voice.
>  I'm struggling with how far I should go with my edits. No, there is no
> style guide, and as a result, there are many inconsistencies throughout
> the manual. Please see the examples below and tell me if you think I'm
> going too far with active vs. passive voice.
>
> Topic heading:
> List Trends
> List Trends can be accessed by selecting the History button from the Main
> Screen.
>
> or
>
> Topic heading:
> List Trends
> Access List Trends by selecting the History button from the Main Screen.
>
> ________________________________________________________________
>
> Michelle ViÃa-Baltsas
>
>
>
> m -dot- vina-baltsas -at- mindray -dot- com
>
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-- 
Kathleen MacDowell
kathleen -dot- eamd -at- gmail -dot- com


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