passive voice & other correctness issues

[Mark I Halpern <Mark_Halpern -at- SMTPGATE -dot- TESSERACT -dot- COM>]

      Colleagues,

         Today's postings have been educational even beyond the usual standards
      of this discussion group.

         First, I learned that there are technical writers and editors who
      presume to correct the work of others by changing all passive
      constructions to active ones, without regard to the appropriateness of
      voice to the meaning of the particular sentence in question.

         Then I learned that some of these remarkably self-confident writers
      and editors don't know the difference between voice and tense.

         Then I learned that some writers -- I assume Kim Shaw is not alone
      -- think that "few writers or readers understand the difference in
      meaning between past perfect and simple past tense," and deal with
      this situation by simply changing the past perfect to the simple past
      "just to get rid of a few extra words."

         Then I learned from a message from John Ahlstrom that one Dennis
      Baron, in a book called "Guide to Home Language Repair," had said


            When a language critic complains about a word or
            construction,  you can be fairly certain that the target
            expression has already become common enough to be
            considered standard and correct, and that if you read or
            listen long enough, you will find the offending bit of
            language in the language critic's speech or writing,



      This quotation was offered to show (presumably) that all criticism of
      language usage is foolish or worse.  I think the passage needs a little
      rewriting to make its meaning clear, and I offer such a rewriting here:


            When a medical researcher issues a warning about a
            microbe or virus, you can be fairly certain that the
            target organism has already become common enough to be
            considered nearly ubiquitous, and that if you observe
            and test long enough, you will find the offending
            pathogen in the medical researcher's blood or solid
            tissues.


         I'm not sure I have the mental capacity to learn any more such
      lessons today, so I may take a little holiday from TECHWR-L, and give
      myself a chance to digest all these new ideas.

                                           Mark Halpern
                                           mark_halpern -at- tesseract -dot- com