Tuesday, October 27, 2009
CPW: Grammar Grater Episode 19: Passive Aggressive
Listen to the podcast entitled "Grammar Grater Episode 19: Passive Aggressive." (If you have problems listening, you can read the text.) Summarize Luke Taylor's point. Remembering what we have learned in class about the passive voice, does he have a convincing argument? What are your thoughts on the issue?
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Passive aggressive has always been hard for me to understand. The way I write my papers is just the way I tend to write. I don't necessarily think long and hard about the tense of my writing. It kind of just confuses me.I think that Luke Tayler explains passive voice well.
ReplyDeleteI must agree with Rachelle. I write the way I write and that is how it is. If I think about the passive and aggressive voice, eventually, I will end up ruining my paper. He explains the passive voice well.
ReplyDeleteI don't actually have a problem understanding the difference between active and passive. I do not understand why people find it hard to understand. It may be because I was never taught to use only the active voice. His point was that passive voice will be used sometimes, but that active voice is preferred.
ReplyDeleteLuke Taylor has a convincing argument that makes alot of sense. Passive voice is something that I don't recall using, but I'm sure I do. Luke Taylor Explains passice voice well, compared to all the other confusing things on passive voice.
ReplyDeleteLuke Taylor didn't say anything different from what we learned in class. He said that in school we learned passive voice is wrong, then went on to say that is is actually okay when we don't know the performer of an action. In class, we learned that there are acceptions, including that one.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Daniel. When i write, I do not think about the way I'm writing. I just do it. If I think too much about my writing, I will over analyze and ruin it.
ReplyDeleteI think the difference between passive and active is simple when broken down in a classroom setting. However, when sitting at home, cranking out an essay, refraining from using the passive voice may not be at the top of my list of things to do.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Rachelle C.
ReplyDeleteI write the way I write so it is difficult to change my own writing to fit what is considered correct sometimes.
I agree with Hilary P. It is easy when we all sit in a classroom and do examples. When I get home and start doing my homework i cannot tell which sentence is active or passive. I care about my paper, but I just want to get the essay done.
ReplyDeleteI understand passive and active voice when it is explained in class, but I don't know how to edit them in my essay's. I can never differentiate between passive and active voice.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Daniel and Rachelle. I tend to write most my papers in passive tense. I have realized that if I write my paper the way I usually do. I can go back and re-read my paper and do a little restructuring and change all the passive sentences to active sentences. It is easier said then done.
ReplyDeleteI agree with christian J,
ReplyDeleteThe passive and active voices are really easy to me. The thing is , is that I don't use the voices in my writing, atleast i don't notice it.
Passive aggressive is hard for me. I don't think about the tense i'm writing in. It confuses me. I guess i never learned. Luke Taylor teaches passive voice good. Taking time to learn about active and passive will be a good use of our time.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ashley B. I sometimes can't even tell the difference between passive and active voices. I will most likely try my best to learn how to tell the difference and use it correctly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kristin P. In class it is easy for me to change one sentence that was given in an example because it doesn't have to flow with an entire paragraph. When I get home and work on my own essay it is much harder to change the sentences in a way that makes sense with the whole paper.
ReplyDeleteLuke Taylor explains the passive voice well I used to get confused with passive and active voice untill reading the class notes in more depth after class and listen to Luke has helped me more understand them
ReplyDeleteLuke Taylor brings up some points about passive and active voice that I have never thought about before. I never thought of the use passive voice as being politically correct. Taylor says that using passive voice focuses on the mistake not on the person. This makes our paper stronger to because the reader will also focus on the "mistake" we are trying to talk about rather than on the person or type of person doing the mistake. It helps us keep labels off of people.
ReplyDeleteI also never realized that we were changing the "to be" verbs because they were making our sentences weak. In class I did not really understand why we took out the "to be" verbs I just knew we had to.
This helps me with being able to decide if a sentence is active or passive and if that sentence needs to be changed or not.
Maddi W.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it is harder to change a sentence from passive to active when you are looking at the sentence in compassison to the whole paper. You want that sentence the way it is because it makes sense because it says what you want it to say.
The way I deal with this is that I take the sentence out of the paper. I rewrite it on a seperate peice of paper and then make it active. This helps me concentrate on the individual sentence and what I want it to say in that particular sentence. Then I put the new sentence in and if necessary I switch up the wording of the sentences around it.
Luke Taylor's example that he used really put passive speaking into perspective for me. Example "The story was leaked by the press secretary." This helped because he showed how the "story" is having something done to it; instead of having the press secretary leaking the story. This shows that it is passive, and the example makes it easier to understand.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rachelle. When I write a paper I don't really want to sit and go through every sentence to figure out if it's correctly passive. I never really understood it, but listening to this I get it a little better.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Rachelle C. passive aggressive is hard to master. I think in this college prep writing class I am learning a lot, and I’m finding easier ways to dissect and edit/revise my papers.
ReplyDeleteAlthough passive voices are used often in essays, they are many times overlooked. Having an active voice is needed to spice up an essay. Reading the essay outloud helps and I think many students forget to do that. Having the passive voice makes it boring and the example by Luke Taylor was a good example why an active voice isn't always better for essays. Passive voices can sometimes be good for explaining but a majority of essays I think should be in active.
ReplyDelete-Sean C
ReplyDeleteI agree, it helped to show that a passive voice isn't always bad. My own opinion is still that I like having an active voice more but when an essay is needing explanations, a passive voice may be the better choice.
The passive agressive voice is somewhat hard for me to grasp. I have not had very many problems working with the two but finding the difference between them is a challenge. CPW is making all of these types of writing a lot easier for me and i have learned a lot already.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ashley. A passive voice can and sometime is neccesary in an essay but using an active voice is simpler and creates a stronger sentence. Having experience in using both types of voice makes essay writing much more easier.
ReplyDeleteLuke Taylors point in this podcast was to show that it's not always wrong to write in the passive tone, in fact in some situations it may be better. I agree with him to an extent. Yes, in some situations passive is better, but it also makes the papers dull. I have trouble writing in active voice but would much rather have to work on it than write a dull paper.
ReplyDeleteLuke Taylor has a good point on using passive voice. When people use the passive voice appropriately, it could have greater effect than using the active voice. However, when passive voices are used too frequently, it will make the sentences too wordy. I often use passive voice in formal essays, especially in the lab report. I should try to use more active voice from now on!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kendra. I think passive voice makes the sentence really wordy and dull, but I have a hard time going through my essays just to change from passive voice to active voice.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rachelle. I always tend to just write my papers without thinking about what tense my writing is. When I try to think of how it should be used correctly it goes onto confuse me even more. Passive voice is explained really well with this. It has clarified how to fix the tense.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ashley D. Reading a paper out loud and actually hearing what it says helps to hear whether or not the paper has the passive voice. If I were to just scan over a paper in my head, I might not notice how dry and boring it sounds.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time pasiive voice is okay to handle for me, but i do have to say that sometimes it does become hard to use. This is because in my writting i am used to using active voice. This explanation is good but at the same time it got sorta boring. But it did get down to the point.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with both Alex A. and Ashley D. It is easier to realize the tense that the writer is using when the paper is read aloud. If its read to ones self it may sound and look correct when it may not truely be.
ReplyDeleteMaking a passive aggressive essay has always been one of my strengths. It is an important skill for writing clear essays. I think that we all need to focus on this and it will improve our general essay qualities.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ainesley J. When I can differentiate passive from active, I have a lot of trouble making my changed sentence sound better (or even as good as) my old sentence.
ReplyDeleteAshley B, I agree with your statement. I don't really think about passive aggressive when I'm writing. I think it would help me if we went over it a little bit more.
ReplyDelete