Shifts in Verb Voice, Tense, Person, and Number

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Shifts in Verb Voice, Tense, Person, and Number

• created by
• Eric Zellers
• Ilona Carlon-Plitt

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• Ilona
  Eric!

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Unnecessary Shifts in Sentences Awkward Changes
in Subject and Verb Forms
Shifts are BAD!
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Shift in Subject Notes

• Within a sentence a shift is a change from one
  subject to another or from one verb to another.
  Often shifts are acceptable because they are
  necessary to express the meaning the writer
  intends.
• The smoothness of a sentence is affected by an
  unnecessary or awkward shift.

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Examples of Shift in Subject

• Awkward
• A student should choose books from the reading
  list so that you can be sure they are acceptable
  to the teacher.
• (The unnecessary shift from student to you is
  awkward is confusing)

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Examples of Shift in Subject (Cont)

• Acceptable
• A student should choose books from the reading
  list so that he or she can be sure they are
  acceptable to the teacher.

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Shift in Voice Notes

• When the subject of a verb is acting, the verb is
  in the active voice. When the subject of a verb
  is acted upon, the verb is in the passive voice.
• Avoid unnecessary shifts in voice within one
  sentence.

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Examples of Active and Passive Voice

• Active Voice-Jane won both events. (subject
  acting)
• Passive Voice-Both events were won by Jane.
  (Subject acted upon)

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Examples of Shift in Verb Voice

• Unnecessary shift-Volunteers made (active verb)
  the dangerous journey after dark, but no wolves
  were encountered (passive verb).

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Examples of Shift in Verb Voice (Cont)

• Shift avoided-Volunteers made (active verb) the
  dangerous journey after dark but encountered
  (active verb) no wolves.

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Shifts in Tense of Verbs

• Changing without reason from one tense to another
  within a sentence creates an awkward and
  confusing effect. Stick to the tense that you
  start with unless there is an excellent reason
  for changing.

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Examples of Shift in Tense

• Unnecessary shift-At this point the President
  reads (present tense) a prepared statement but
  refused (past tense) to answer any questions.

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Examples of Shift in Tense (Cont)

• Shift avoided-At this point the President read
  (past tense) a prepared statement but refused
  (past tense) to answer any questions.
• Shift avoided-At this point the President reads
  (present tense) a prepared statement but refuses
  (present tense) to answer any questions.

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Shifts in Tense of Verbs (Cont)

• In correcting unnecessary shifts in subject and
  verb, you will often find the best method is to
  omit the second subject. This can usually be
  done by using a second verb in the same voice as
  the first and making the verb compound.

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Examples of Shifts in Tense (Cont)

• Unnecessary shift-A good driver has complete
  control of the car at all times, and allowance is
  made for the carelessness of other drivers.

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Examples of Shift in Tense (Cont)

• Shift avoided-A good driver has complete control
  of the car at all times and makes allowances for
  the carelessness of other drivers. (The use of
  the compound active voice for both verbs corrects
  the awkward shift.)

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Shifts in Person

• The term person identifies whether the speaker
  of a sentence is the person speaking (the first
  person), the person spoken to (the second
  person), or the person spoken about (the third
  person).

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Rules of Shifts in Person

• A shift from one person form to another obscures
  a subjects identity, changing the reference by
  which the subject is known. Shifts in person
  often occur when a writer switches from the
  second person (you) to the first person (I, we)
  or to the third person (he, she, it).
• You can avoid this difficulty by recognizing the
  first-, second-, third-person orientation of your
  sentences and by maintaining consistency.

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Examples of Shift in Person

• Inconsistent-A person who is a nonsmoker can
  develop lung troubles when you live with smokers.

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Examples of Shift in Person (Cont)

• Third person-A person who is a nonsmoker can
  develop lung troubles when he or she lives with
  smokers.
• Second person-If you are a nonsmoker, you can
  develop lung troubles if you live with smokers.

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Shifts in Number

• Pronouns should agree in number with the nouns
  they replace. You can avoid shifting number and
  confusing readers by maintaining a clear plural
  or singular sense in all significant words
  throughout a sentence.

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Examples of Shift in Number

• Inconsistent
• They had the best time of their life.

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Examples of Shift in Number(cont)

• Revised
• They had the best time of their lives.

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Any significant words related to a subject or
object should match its number.

• Inconsistent
• The seven candidates for the judgeship have a
  liberal record.

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Cont.

• Revised
• The seven candidates for the judgeship have
  liberal records.

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The End
THE END!!!
Shows over. Now go away.