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Well, I think I'd have answered that writer by pointing out
that "Passive voice should be eliminated" is a statement in
the passive voice. It might not accomplish anything, but on
the other hand, it might have gotten him to stop and think.
Beyond that, I'm not sure we should encourage language that
makes it easy to avoid implicating the people who've done
things wrong.
And for "The program manager is now displayed" we could write
"The program manager now appears." Very often, the trick is
to change verbs. But I think you're right that most people don't
care what part of the system is doing these things.
Vicki Rosenzweig
vr%acmcr -dot- uucp -at- murphy -dot- com
New York, NY
