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Subject:Re: Passive voice From:David Hancock <djh -at- ARINC -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 30 Nov 1994 07:55:12 EST
(I'm a digest subscriber, so you may see this response after your
interest level has dropped WAY off.)
The question: "When is it OK to use passive voice?" made me think of my
freshman rhetoric and composition teacher in college (Alan Gribben, then
at the University of Texas at Austin). His advice: "Learn all the
rules, and break any of them you want. When you break one, though,
write me a note in the margin stating that you did it on purpose."
I have appreciated that advice, and it certainly applies to the
question.
(It's surely better to write the marginal note only in a draft!)