Friday, May 15, 2009

The Passive Voice Is My Enemy

As is unnecessary wordiness.

And my students wonder why I grind these axes when I comment on their work. It's because these are my own crosses to bear.

(Which of course I always tell them, but I don't think that they really realize how true this is.)

4 comments:

Susan said...

Don't you love it. When I work with students I always say to them, "How do you think I know you need to do this?"
Sigh.

Psycgirl said...

I looooooooooooove the passive voice. I want to marry it and have it's little passive voice babies.
Sigh.
But I am beating it out of myself as I inch towards that Ph.D.

Shaun Huston said...

I'll second the thought on unnecessary wordiness. Had a good fill of that today.

Academic, Hopeful said...

I am finding it hard to strike a balance (in my PhD) between using as few words as possible and making my writing discursive enough so that the reader is taken on a pleasant journey. At times I find myself rushing to my findings in a dry, technical way. Any pointers?