{"id":375,"date":"2010-10-03T14:54:10","date_gmt":"2010-10-03T21:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=375"},"modified":"2010-10-06T18:38:08","modified_gmt":"2010-10-07T01:38:08","slug":"writing-in-the-active-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=375","title":{"rendered":"Writing in the Active Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a general rule, cast your sentences in the active voice.\u00c2\u00a0 In the active voice, the subject of the sentence does the action.\u00c2\u00a0In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence is not<\/em> the agent doing\u00c2\u00a0the action.\u00c2\u00a0Instead of writing, “The cat was kicked by Joe,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d write,\u00c2\u00a0” Joe kicked the cat.”\u00c2\u00a0 It means the same thing, but the ability to express an idea in fewer words helps to clarify\u00c2\u00a0your meaning\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0makes the readers’ job much more pleasant.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem like much when dealing with a simple sentence–three words instead of five–but compounded over the course of an extended essay, this can represent a significant amount of extraneous prose.<\/p>\n

Weak verbs: <\/strong>is, <\/strong>are, was,were,\u00c2\u00a0have, has, had, am,<\/p>\n

Strong verbs:<\/strong> Any of the thousands of action words such as “run,” “study,” “eat,” “remember,” etc.<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/p>\n

Kenia is<\/strong> an author of novels.\u00c2\u00a0 (weak–passive)<\/p>\n

(Revision)<\/strong> Kenia writes<\/strong> novels.\u00c2\u00a0 (strong verb–active)<\/p>\n

Gary is<\/strong> a member of the club. (weak)<\/p>\n

(Revision) <\/strong>Gary belongs<\/strong> to the club. (strong)<\/p>\n

Yamen was<\/strong> of the opinion that it would rain today.<\/p>\n

(Revision)\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong>Yamen believed<\/strong> it would rain day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a general rule, cast your sentences in the active voice.\u00c2\u00a0 In the active voice, the subject of the sentence does the action.\u00c2\u00a0In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence is not the agent doing\u00c2\u00a0the action.\u00c2\u00a0Instead of writing, “The cat was kicked by Joe,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d write,\u00c2\u00a0” Joe kicked the cat.”\u00c2\u00a0 It means the same thing, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tQeJ-63","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":513,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=513","url_meta":{"origin":375,"position":0},"title":"UCD Students: Post verbs and adverbs for thesis statements to Colexa","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"December 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/colexa.pbworks.com\/w\/page\/28374895\/FrontPage","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6555,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=6555","url_meta":{"origin":375,"position":1},"title":"Full list of Trump’s pardons\/commutations. 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I have just visited America's ubiquitous, but friendly, neighborhood grocery\/pharmacy\/hardware\/camera\/paint\/cosmetic\/ apparel\/stationery\/toy\/liquor\/small appliance\/electronics ... store. \u00c2\u00a0And although my plastic saguaro thermometer is still registering temps around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":754,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=754","url_meta":{"origin":375,"position":4},"title":"Country Joe and the Fish at Woodstock: “Fixin’ to Die Rag”","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"March 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Fixin' to Die Rag\" is one of the best anti-war songs of\u00c2\u00a0the period. 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This Is How Laura Ingraham Closed Her Republican Convention Speech \u00a0 God her voice is irritating!\u00c2\u00a0(YouTube) And what she says is imbecile! \u00a0 \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"fascist salute","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theswillbucket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fascist-salute-1024x731.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}