Re: passive voice (was RE: Numbering paragraphs

Subject: Re: passive voice (was RE: Numbering paragraphs
From: sphilip <philstokes03 -at- googlemail -dot- com>
To: Chris Despopoulos <despopoulos_chriss -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:48:08 +0700


On 22 Oct 2012, at 17:58, Chris Despopoulos <despopoulos_chriss -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:

> The simple example, "An alert is posted" says less than "The system posts an alert." To say as much in passive voice requires "An alert is posted by the system" That's almost a 30% increase in words.
>

You know I really, really wanted to let this drop(!), but maybe because its a Monday rather than a Friday…sorry, but the idea that your example carries more information in active than passive seems just bizarre, possibly because the tense is entirely inappropriate.

No further information is given by

"The system has posted an alert."

than

"An alert has been posted."

The fact that the 'system' posted the alert (as opposed to who?) is either irrelevant or understood in context. *Only if* the _agent_ of the posting is relevant to the user is active voice justified here.

And of course, if we're counting words, then the active voice is unnecessarily longer. However, possibly more important than arguing about the use of AP and PV is the belief that word count is directly proportional to clarity. You're kidding right?

1. Attach the gimmblewit to the jummblebit (6 words, totally clear, right?).

2. Attach the blue, diamond-shaped gimmblewit to the green, diamond-shaped jummblebit. (10 words, far more perspicuous).

Neither word count nor choice of active or passive voice make a jot of difference to clarity if they are not used appropriately in line with both the reader's expectations and the subject matter at hand.

Best



Phil
http://applehelpwriter.wordpress.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Writer Tip: You have more time to author content with Doc-To-Help, because your project can be up and running in 3 steps.

See the &#8220;Getting Started with Doc-To-Help&#8221; blog post. http://bit.ly/doc-to-help-3-steps
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives


Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: passive voice (was RE: Numbering paragraphs: From: Chris Despopoulos
Re: passive voice (was RE: Numbering paragraphs: From: Milan Davidović
Re: passive voice (was RE: Numbering paragraphs: From: Chris Despopoulos
Re: passive voice (was RE: Numbering paragraphs: From: sphilip
Re: passive voice (was RE: Numbering paragraphs: From: Chris Despopoulos

Previous by Author: Re: passive voice (was RE: Numbering paragraphs
Next by Author: Re: passive voice (was RE: Numbering paragraphs
Previous by Thread: RE: passive voice (was RE: Numbering paragraphs
Next by Thread: Re: passive voice (was RE: Numbering paragraphs


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads