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"Unlike other verb constructions, the passive voice does not
necessarily identify who does what. Instead, the person or thing
performing the action may be cloaked in ambiguity.
"In business communication the passive voice is often used to
soften the impact of a negative idea or to avoid placing blame for an
oversight or error. It is also used simply to provide variety in sentence
construction.
"To form passive voice....
This fascinates me. It also is a reminder that people who write in
ways we think are--well, less than great--may have extremely defensible
reasons for doing it. Like, somebody *taught* them it was preferred. My
personal favorite was the engineer who used inconsistent terminology
because his high school english teacher corrected him for using the same
word in his compositions!!
My last two cents for this week,
Mary
Mary Durlak Erie Documentation Inc.
East Aurora, New York (near Buffalo)
durl -at- buffnet -dot- net
