Grammar; Generes and their features.

The use of Active and Passive

Active:
1. used in autographical text (The agent is the topic of the text)
2. to focus onthepeoplewhomake things happen e.g. in creative writing.

Passive:
1. to avoid having a long complex noun phrase as the subject of a sentence.
2. to focus on an action, not who or what did it
3. much more common in writing; especially scientific, technical and academic writing where we are most interested
in events and processes
4. “get” is used in more informal contexts and is more common in spoken than written English. It is only used with
dynamic vervs and not with stative verbs
5. only trainsitive bers can form a passive structurue
6. The agent is only expressed with “by” when it is important to say who or what something is done by
7. the agent may not be known
8. the agent may not be considered relevant
9. The agent may simply be obvious
10. Reference to the agent may be avoided to deflect criticism because it may beembarrassing or inappropriate.
11. agentless passives are frequently used in impersonal speaking and writing styles, such as academic and technical
writing, where the focus is on the precesses