II- Grammar: Passive Voice 2.
1 Use
1. We do not know who the agent is:
'I dont know who did it, but my wallet has been stolen.' 'I had the feeling that I was being followed.'
instead of:
'I dont know who did it, but someone has stolen my wallet.' 'I had the feeling that somebody was following me.'
2.When it is obvious to the listener or reader who the agent is:
'I had been instructed to remove all the ash trays.'
instead of:
'My boss had instructed me to remove all the ash trays.'
3. When it is not important to know who the agent is:
'I want my house to be rented as soon as possible.'
instead of:
'I want someone to rent my house as soon as possible.'
4. When the agent has already been mentioned:
'In the next session, new laws will be introduced aimed at stopping violence.'
instead of: 'In the next session, the government will introduce new laws aimed at stopping violence.'
5. When people in general are the agents:
'All the books can be borrowed from the central library.
instead of:
'You can borrow all the book from the central library.
6. The actor is irrelevant: An experimental solar power plant will be built in the Australian desert. [We are not interested in who is building it.]
7. You want to be vague about who is responsible: Mistakes were made. [Common in bureaucratic writing!]
8. You are talking about a general truth: Rules are made to be broken. [By whomever, whenever.] 9. You want to emphasize the person or thing acted on. Insulin was first discovered in 1921 by researchers at the University of Toronto.
10. You are writing in a scientific genre that traditionally relies on passive voice. Passive voice is often preferred in lab reports and scientific research papers, most notably in the Materials and Methods section:
The sodium hydroxide was dissolved in water. This solution was then titrated with hydrochloric acid.
2.2 Form We can only form a passive sentence from an active sentence when there is an object in the active sentence. Passive forms are made up of an appropriate form of the verb to be followed by the past participle (pp) form of the verb (to be + past participle). How to form a passive sentence when an active sentence is given: - object of the "active" sentence becomes subject in the "passive" sentence - subject of the "active" sentence becomes "object" in the "passive" sentence" (or is left out) Active: Peter builds a house.
Passive:
A house
is built
by Peter.
Here is a part of complete list of all the verb forms that are normally used in the passive:
Verb form Present simple Present continuous Present perfect simple
Construction am/is/are + pp am/are/is being + pp has/have been + pp
Example How is this word pronounced? The house is being redecorated. He's just been shocked!
It is possible to form the passive with other verb forms, such as the perfect continuous ones, but usually it is better to avoid these forms because of their complicated and inelegant structure e.g.
'The factory has been being built for 10 years!
Note that it is only transitive verbs which can have passive forms. Intransitive verbs, like cry, die, arrive, disappear, wait, which often describe physical behavior, cannot be used in the passive voice. They have no objects, so there is nothing to become the subject of a passive sentence.
When should I avoid passive voice?
1. Passive sentences can get you into trouble in academic writing: Both Othello and Iago desire Desdemona. She is courted. [Who courts Desdemona? Othello? Iago? Both of them?]
2. Academic writing often focuses on differences between the ideas of different researchers, or between your own ideas and those of the researchers you are discussing: Research has been done to discredit this theory. [Who did the research? You? Your professor? Another author?]
3. Some people use passive sentences to hide holes in their research: The telephone was invented in the nineteenth century. [I couldn't find out who invented the telephone!]
Finally, passive sentences often sound wordy and indirect. They can make the reader work unnecessarily hard. And since they are usually longer than active sentences, passive sentences take up precious room in your paper.
References
1- BBC Learning English http://www.bbc.co.uk 2- University of Utoronto official website http://www.writing.utoronto.ca 3- Englisch Hilfen Learning English Online http://www.englisch-hilfen.de
