Why is it so important to avoid the passive voice? As a Briton, I was astonished that Americans consider this to be essential to fine writing. Of course,this “rule” is derived from that absurd proscriptivist diatribe “Elements of Style” by Strunk and White. And, please, before anyone is tempted to defend this pair of sniffy school-marms, please check out the opinions of professional linguists on http://www.languagelog.com.
Btw… anyone notice my “is derived from”? Or do I need to insert “by zombies”.
And another thing… despite what you were told in your (US) schools, the punctuation DOES NOT go inside the quotation marks unless those marks are themselves being quoted.
Dennis
16 September 2013 / 9:56 am
so basically what you’re saying is that you disagree with Strunk & White and feel the need to whine about it even though it has no impact on your life whatsoever, and think that Americans should follow the British rules of punctuation just because you say so. How very American of you, acting unilaterally.
Haha, that is awesome!
Awesome that is!
Love it! I have been preaching from this soapbox for years now & just showed it to my own children.
As a non-native speaker I never would have guessed I’d be taught the passive voice [by zombies] that way…
“I never would have guessed I’d be taught [by zombies] the passive voice that way.” 🙂
🙂 Great advice! Love it!
Why is it so important to avoid the passive voice? As a Briton, I was astonished that Americans consider this to be essential to fine writing. Of course,this “rule” is derived from that absurd proscriptivist diatribe “Elements of Style” by Strunk and White. And, please, before anyone is tempted to defend this pair of sniffy school-marms, please check out the opinions of professional linguists on http://www.languagelog.com.
Btw… anyone notice my “is derived from”? Or do I need to insert “by zombies”.
And another thing… despite what you were told in your (US) schools, the punctuation DOES NOT go inside the quotation marks unless those marks are themselves being quoted.
so basically what you’re saying is that you disagree with Strunk & White and feel the need to whine about it even though it has no impact on your life whatsoever, and think that Americans should follow the British rules of punctuation just because you say so. How very American of you, acting unilaterally.