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Subject:Re: Passive voice From:FOLTZ_J -at- DT3 -dot- DT -dot- UH -dot- EDU Date:Fri, 4 Feb 1994 13:23:21 -0600
John Oriel quoted a source as saying:
A superbly well educated gentleman from London once told me
that students of his generation in the U. K. were taught to
write in the passive voice because the resulting text would
translate more easily into the Romance languages. U. S.
writers, he told me, have less reason to expect that
their work will ever be translated, and are therefore
encouraged to write in the more concise active voice.
I think we have just been insulted. Why would U.S. writers have less reason
to expect their work will be translated? What have the Brits got that we
U.S. writers supposedly don't.
