Actors, Actions, and Rules in Writing

Actors, Actions, and Rules in Writing

CONCEPT 5: Clarify what needs to be emphasized and use active or passive voice accordingly.

ACTIVE VOICE:

• Emphasizes the actor.

• “Normal” or expected English syntax helps reader easily grasp the main idea.

• Simplified sentence structure tends to reduce word count.

There is opposition among many voters to nuclear power plants based on a belief of their threat to human health.

Many voters opposenuclear power plants because they believe these plants threaten human health.

BUT BEWARE THE FRANKENSTEIN EFFECT! (active voice for inanimate objects)

ReasonableThe oscilloscope displayedthe voltage.

The oscilloscope measuredthe voltage.

V

+

-

The oscilloscope calculatedthe voltage.

V=

PASSIVE VOICE:

• Emphasizes actions, not who’s doing them.

• Use when actor is unimportant or unknown, or when the actor wishes not to be named.

•The solution was heated to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.•The victim was murdered at approximately 4 a.m. last night.•Three hundred washer/dryer combinations were donated to Habitat for Humanity last week.

(example)

CONCEPT 6: Know what it means to be “correct” on several levels.

There are 3 kinds of grammar rules:

1. Real rules2. Social rules3. Invented rules

REAL RULES

• These are the rules that define English as English.

• Speakers born into English do not think about these

rules and violate them only when they are not paying

attention (i.e. tired or distracted).

Mary and John swam in the lake.Not: – on the lake or by the lake.

She enjoyed the book.Not: She enjoyed book the.

EXAMPLE: “Real” Rules

SOCIAL RULES

• Social rules abide by the

conventions of Standard

Written English (the

“language of power”).

• None of us speak

standard English.

• Educated people,

however, write standard

English and observe

social rules when and

where appropriate.

EXAMPLE: Social Rules

• We saw the accident.

Not: We seen the accident.

• He has no money.

Not: He ain’t got no money.

NOTE: some dialects of English consistently use double

negatives etc. If a dialect is consistent in this type of usage, it is

not a violation of grammar but rather a variation in social rules –

appropriate in some contexts but not others.

INVENTED RULES

Invented rules are “school rules” - those rules that we think we should

observe. These can be broken.

• Never use “I” in academic writing!

• Never end a sentence with a preposition!

• Never start a sentence with a conjunction!

• Never use the passive voice!

Example of an Invented RuleNever split an infinitive! (an infinitive is the “to form of a verb”--- to run, to play, etc).

Errors that readers notice and these reflect poorly on writer:• Run on sentences and fragments.• Incorrect use of its/it’s and there/their/they’re• Typos and Spelling Errors

Errors that cause confusion for readers:• Missing comma for an introductory element.• Ambiguous pronoun reference.• Faulty parallelism• Wrong stress emphasis

Errors that few readers notice:• Different from vs. Different than• Using a contraction• Split infinitive

THINK RHETORICALLY ABOUT WHEN TO BREAK RULES