Pages

Thursday, September 9, 2010

The exercises on the Diane Hacker site summary

I did the exercise on active vs. passive verbs. The passive-voice sentences are work better than the sentences in active-voice. For example, the sentence “Jane was encouraged by her supervisor to apply for the new position.”, and “Jane’s supervisor encouraged her to apply for the new position.” In these two sentences, the sentence which is passive is clearer. But sometimes, it is easy to confuse the actor. For more examples. “As the patient undressed, scars were seen on his back, stomach, and thighs. “and “As the patient undressed, the doctor saw scars on his back, stomach ,and thighs.” The first is incorrect. The scars are not seeing anything. They should be seen by someone who is not named on this sentence. The second sentence is correct. It is a clear sentence. The subject , doctor, names the actor make sence.


In one word, the passive-voice sentences sometimes can express the meaning clearer. But we should be careful when we use passive. Sometimes, it is easy to confuse who is the actor and which is the action.

No comments:

Post a Comment