Valiant 96 Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 Do you use the active voice or the passive voice when you write? Personally, I would prefer using active voice as that would engage the reader more. Here's a little guide on how to use active voice: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_actpass.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaizer 0 Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 It had been the general standard for scientific writing to be done in the passive voice for some time, and since the majority of my classes are physics and mathematics related, I've kinda had it drilled into my head to use the passive voice. However, it has begun to be more widely accepted to use the active voice as well, and so I've been trained to use both, and I end up using them interchangeably. For the most part, I use whichever one seems to make the sentence sound more appealing, so its not bizarre to see me swap between the two during a post (though I try to at least do each paragraph in a specific voice, or it could become too convoluted). When it comes to any scholarly writing however, I usually stick to purely passive voice, as most reports have you describing what you have done, or will do, and the passive voice seems to work well for giving instructions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janus 5 Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 hmm I just tend to write what comes into mind and sounds more appealling like Kaizer says. Then again, after reading some of my past literature it'd seem that I use the active voice over the passive anytime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temari-Desert-Storm 0 Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 Most of the time, I think that active voice is used more than passive, because it just comes out more naturally than passive. I used active more than passive, if I even use passive at all. It's just more comfortable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaftronics 0 Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 Depending on what I need, like clarity in my posts, or just length, I switch between the two. Passive helps for making your posts look a lot longer than it should be and its pretty good for schoolwork when meeting a word quota. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valiant 96 Posted October 16, 2007 Author Share Posted October 16, 2007 I'm more worried about keeping to the word quota rather than lengthening my essays nowadays. It's not just a case of how appealing it looks. Active voice gives the reader the feeling of being there, whereas passive voice does a better job of telling you how/what happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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