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Subject:Re: active voice v. passive voice From:Meg Halter <aiki4us -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 20 Feb 2001 10:43:55 -0800 (PST)
Jane Carnall is debating with a coworker.
A co-worker has gone through a manual and, among other things,
carefully changed active voice to passive voice. I asked him
about it, pointing to a specific example:
New: Two topologies are available in defining Cats: pedigree or
moggy.
Old: You can define two types of Cats: pedigree or moggy.
----------------
Hi Jane --
The first is a statement of fact. A reader's reaction could be
"Ok. So what?". The second version explicitly states that fact
in terms of what it implies for the reader.
(Is moggy a real kind of cat? Never heard of it.)
-- Meg
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