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Martha J. Feebelvester is survived by her husband and three daughters.
Here, Martha J. Feebelvester is the emphasis, not her survivors.
Another example:
It was decided to close the plant and lay-off 325 employees.
Here, the actor--the party responsible for deciding to close the plant and lay-off employees--doesn't want to be known or emphasized. (aha...another passive sentence)
Brad Barnes
Technical Writer
> >
> "DLE", s/he of no sig line (!) posed the following
> challenge: to reword the phrase "the leaves on the sidewalk
> were kicked and scattered by passing feet" in active voice.
> Not noting any "irony alert", emoticons or other clues
> <grin>, I'd take this challenge seriously and reword this
> as "passing feet kicked and scattered the leaves on the
> sidewalk". Then again, I'd lose the "kicked and" as
> redundant: it's implicit, since the feet can only scatter
> the leaves by kicking them. Of course, if the act of
> kicking is important, then so is the actor; "DLE kicked and
> scattered the leaves..."
> Let's start the clock ticking again: can anyone provide a
> _good_ example of necessary passive voice?
