Re: Procedural syntax: "Click to expand" vs. "Expand by clicking"
"A verb is in the active voice when it expresses an action performed by its
subject. A verb is in the passive voice when it expresses an action
performed upon its subject or when the subject is the result of the action"
-Warriner's English Grammar and Composition.
Let me ask this question for clarification. What do we want the outcome of
the action to be, and what is the action? The action is to click, the
outcome is the expansion of the folder. We do not want the action to be the
expansion and the outcome the clicking do we? Perhaps it would have been better if it were written like this, "To expand
the folder, click on the plus sign."
You are misconstruing the rule because you are presumably too young to have been taught how to diagram a sentence and are therefor confused about what the subjects of the sample sentences are.
In both [A] and [B], the subject of the sentence is [you] (the implied subject of the imperative mood verb _click_ in [A] and _expand- in [B]). In both cases the subject ([you]) performs the action (click or expand).
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References:
RE: Procedural syntax: "Click to expand" vs. "Expand by clicking": From: Dubin, David
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