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Re: What to say to people who LIKE the passive voice (fwd)
Subject:Re: What to say to people who LIKE the passive voice (fwd) From:Kris Jaeger <krisj -at- MEI -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 3 Feb 1994 10:53:28 -0600
Melody DeMeritt writes:
>Would any of you like to contribute to our education here at Cal Poly?
>Which do you prefer: active or passive voice.....Why?
>From: Chad Kaiwi Southern <csouther -at- oboe -dot- aix -dot- calpoly -dot- edu>
>To: M DeMeritt <mdemerit -at- oboe -dot- aix -dot- calpoly -dot- edu>
>Subject: Re: What to say to people who LIKE the passive voice
>My instructor handed out a booklet on proper ASAE technical report
>format. In this booklet it states that writing shall be done in third
>person. The justification this writer uses for this is that the report
>seems rather informal when written like a conversation. Also, instead of
>the author speaking for and about the author's work, writing in third
>person lets the work speak for itself.
The first thought that came to my mind was, "do we need to be formal or
understood?" My degree is in Sociology -- all I did for 4+ years at
college was write in the third person. When I began tech writing it was so
much easier (not to mention clearer for my audience) to write in the first
person. Now, when I come across papers I did in college, all I want to do
is rewrite them and remove the third person.
The one thing that technical writing (I write operator manuals for medical
equipment) has taught me is that I write for my audience -- not to impress
them with what I say but to teach them what they need to know. Formality
has a way of distancing the audience from the material. My goal is to draw
my user into the document -- to make it accessible, easy to
read/understand. And actually, if the document is well-written, the
audience is impressed by the clarity and how easy they can find the
information that they need.
Just my $.02.
______________________________________________________________________________
Kris Jaeger Marquette Electronics, Inc.
krisj -at- mei -dot- com Diagnostic Technical Communication
8200 W. Tower Avenue
Milwaukee WI 53223 USA
Telephone: (414) 362-2605
Fax: (414) 357-5988
