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Subject:Re: active vs. passive From:Bernd Hutschenreuther <hutschi -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:Usha Manoj <usha -dot- manoj07 -at- gmail -dot- com>, Karin Matchett <wordcraft -at- karinmatchett -dot- com> Date:Mon, 7 Aug 2017 11:05:59 +0000 (UTC)
Hi,
if you just exchange "will be" by "is" or "are" it has no direct influence on passiv or active voice.
I am here. I will be here. - activeThe letter will be sent. The letter is sent. - passive.
You will have to restructure the sentence.To avoid passive voice has advantage in many sentences, especially in user manuals and in specifications.ÂPassive voice often hides what or who is doing the action. This may cause problems.
Otherwise, passive voice can have an advantage if you want to topicalice something.
Compare:
1. The system fills the Address field using the address information from the main customer. (active)2. The address field will be filled with the address information from the main customer. (passive)
2. is shorter and you can read at first about the topic.In 1. you have to read a part which usually is not essential. But it can be. If both the user and the system can fill the field, 1. will hide this information.
I would look into the style guide to find how to write it.If there is no style guide I would recommend to write one. It helps all to find answers when to avoid passive and how to write it.
In my experience passive is dangerous for the programmers, if they mismatch the actor with the receiver.
Best regardsBerndÂÂ
Usha Manoj <usha -dot- manoj07 -at- gmail -dot- com> schrieb am 11:50 Montag, 7.August 2017:
Dear All,
With regards to active and passive, I have a query and may be you can throw
some light on it.
I have usually encountered this problem when I drafted RFP or RFI.
Technical writing emphasizes on using active voice. However, in case of
proposals, where you talk about performing a particular action in case you
win the deal, the text is usually in future tense, for example, Company X
will be responsible to meet the SLA targets. How best can we avoid using
"will be" in the sentence. I have tried replacing it with "is" or "are"
depending on the context, but doesn't work in all cases. Please advise.
Regards
Usha
>Â Â I agree. In addition to needing a form of "to be," it needs an explicit
>Â Â subject.
>Â Â The question of active vs. passive doesn't even apply to this sentence
>Â Â because it's a command, which only has an implied subject of "you." My
>Â Â sense of why the question of passive voice is coming up is that there
>Â Â are different ways to phrase this sentence that are differently
>Â Â direct/indirect/confusing/obtuse/imprecise. These have a similar feel
>Â Â to active/passive, but they're not the same thing -- there's no
>Â Â overlap.
>Â Â Karin
>
>Â Â On 8/4/2017 7:23 PM, Robert Lauriston wrote:
>
> Since the subject specifically refers to active vs. passive, I'll
> repeat what I said in that long thread, only correctly (it has been a
> long and busy day):
>
> A phrase in passive voice has to have a form of the verb "be" and a
> past participle. There's more to it, but without those, it's not
> passive voice.
>
> Garner's "Modern American Usage" has good explanations for things like
> that.
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