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Subject:RE: Open vs Appear,Yet Again From:Kevin Amery <kamery -at- opentext -dot- com> To:"'Janice Gelb'" <janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com>, "'techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com'" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 11 Oct 2006 10:45:25 -0400
True, it's not necessarily evil, but since "opens," "appears," and even
"displays" (as opposed to "is displayed") are such easy alternatives, I
don't see why you would want to go passive in this case. I don't think you
gain anything, at any rate.
Kevin Amery
Technical Writer, Research and Development
Open Text Corporation
1 Sparks Ave.
North York, ON. M2H 2W1
CANADA
Phone: +1 (416)496-2200-2402
e-mail: kamery -at- opentext -dot- com
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-----Original Message-----
From: Janice Gelb [mailto:janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 5:47 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Open vs Appear,Yet Again
Kevin Amery wrote:
>
> James Barrow wrote:
>
>> This is my style also, but as I posted earlier, I've had
>> editors cringe at this. Whenever I've used 'displayed', >> my work has
come back with more red ink than the federal >> budget.
>
> The problem (to me at least) with "is displayed" is it's > passive
voice. "Opens" or "appears" is active voice.
>
In cases where the noun doing the action is clearly understood, passive
voice is not necessarily evil.
In this case, there is no confusion about what has displayed the dialog box.
We allow both "appears" and "is displayed" so if Jim wants to come work for
Sun, I promise I won't mark "is displayed" as incorrect :->
-- Janice
***********************************************************
Janice Gelb | The only connection Sun has with
janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com | this message is the return address.
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