Making Verbs Work

1
Making Verbs Work

• Passive versus Active Voice

2
Use strong verbs.

• Verbs provide the momentum of writing.
• Proper verb choice makes the difference between
  crisp, clear writing and bloated, clumsy writing.

3
What is the difference?

• A sentence is in the active voice when the
  subject does the acting instead of being the
  recipient of the acting.
  
• Active Lowell depicts a grim view of
  marriage.
  
• Passive Marriage is depicted as grim by Lowell.

4
What is the difference?

• A verb that conveys actionas opposed to a verb
  that merely links the subject to a thought.
  
• Active Jim tossed the report away.
• Linking Jim was tired of the report.

5
Active verbs

• just naturally go with writing that is in the
  active voice.
  
• When you put the subject front and center, doing
  something, you will probably find yourself using
  stronger, more interesting verbs.

6
Active voice is generally stronger

• Both kinds of verbs are useful in writing. Thats
  why we have both.
  
• But, unless youre a diplomat or bureaucrat or
  some other kind of weasel, you need to rely on
  the active voice more than the passive.
  

7
Active Voice

• Uses direct action verbs
• Has a clearly defined actor and action

8
Passive Voice

• Uses to be verb forms
• Emphasizes what was found, not who did the
  finding
  
• Can be pedantic and wordy in the hands of amateurs

9
Which verb form to use

• Largely a matter of what you want to emphasize
• Active Voice emphasizes an action taken by a
  subject.
  
• Passive Voice
• emphasizes what was found, the end result.
• hides who was responsible for the action.

10
Replace wimpy verb phrases

• Strong verbs
• Determine
• Measure
• analyze

• Weak verb phrases
• Make a determination
• Perform a measurement
• Carry out an analysis

11
Transform into active voice

• Change nouns ending in tion, -ment, and ance
  back into verbs.
  
• Indication ? indicate
• Contamination ? contaminate
• Measurement ? measure
• Variation ? vary

12
Use is verbs sparingly

• Is beginning ? begins
• Is used to detect ? detects

13
When to use is

• If sentence defines or equates
• Lowells poem is a sonnet.

14
When not to use is

• In sentences that do not present a definition or
  equality
  
• To analyze

15
Verb tenses

• Using active voice eliminates awkward tense shifts

16
Parallel Construction

• Verbs must be in the same form

17
Parallel vs. Non-parallel

• faulty parallelism
• She revels in chocolate, walking under the
  moonlight, and songs from the 1930s jazz
  period.
  
• good parallelism
• She revels in sweet chocolate eclairs, long
  moonlit walks, and classic jazz music.
  
• good parallelism
• She loves eating chocolate eclairs, taking
  moonlit walks, and singing classic jazz.

18
Advantages of active voice

• Shorter, more direct
• More forceful
• Greater clarity (The reader knows immediately who
  is doing what.)
  
• Sharper imagery

19
Which is more effective?

• Stay away from the hot wire. It can kill you.
• The hot wire should be avoided. You can be killed
  by it.
  

20
Should you ever use passive voice? Yes.

• Jon Franklin says that if you try to write
  entirely in the active voice, you are likely to
  produce something unreadable.
  
• Hes right. The active voice is great, but you
  can have too much of a good thing.

21
Use passive voice

• When the actor is unknown or unimportant.
• The knife was found beside the body.
• Or when you want to focus on the receiver of the
  action more than on the actor.
  
• The teacher was fired for his political
  activism.
  

22
Use passive voice

• When you want a gentler or more diplomatic
  approach.
  
• A teenage girl was killed Tuesday by a gunshot
  wound that police said was self-inflicted.
  
• When you want to strengthen the impression of
  objectivityas, for example, in a research
  report.
  

23
Use passive voice

• When you want to achieve a particular
  effectwhether it be wry, sardonic, sarcastic or
  comedic.
  

24
Good writers use both voices.

• Use active voice whenever possible.
• You need to know when to use one voice or the
  other, and when to use them together.
  

25
Credits

• Celia M. Elliott, University of Illinois,
  cmelliot_at_uiuc.edu
  
• John Rains, Writing Coach, The Fayetteville
  Observer, johnrains_at_hotmail.com
  
• Dr. L. Kip Wheeler, Carson Newman College,
  http//web.cn.edu/kwheeler/gram_parallelism.html
  
• Patricia Burgey, UWG