Word question (Microsoft program)

[meldy]

I have been using the Flesch Reading level test things on Word and I am curious as to what the passive sentance thing means?

Is there some way to identify the sentances that are passive (as I assume passive is bad)

I have Word 2007 if that helps.

[PeeDee]

Oh god, here comes an active/passive sentence storm...

Best way to identify them is 1) Go read The Elements of Style.

Here is a wonderful page that gives the gist of it, with arrows. (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_actpass.html)

[meldy]

Oh god, here comes an active/passive sentence storm...




Sorry :e2paperba

I wasnt sure what it meant. It seems to be increasing in percentage the more I write..which is making me a bit nervous........

Thanks for the link!

[Maryn]

Aw, nuts! Finally someone asks a question I can answer without fear of embarrassment, and PeeDee sneaks in while I'm typing with a perfectly good answer, probably better than my long-winded one.

Waaaaaaah!

Maryn, sore loser

[MidnightMuse]

Sorry :e2paperba

I wasnt sure what it meant. It seems to be increasing in percentage the more I write..which is making me a bit nervous........

Thanks for the link!

It's a common fall-back you'll want to quickly nip in the bud and learn to adjust your writing - follow PeeDee's link and print out a copy if you feel you need the reminder. Sometimes we all fall back into bad habits :)

[PeeDee]

It's a useful page. There are more technical explanations (which does not imply you were stupid or anything) but I thought that single yellow arrow really cleared it up nice and easily. I love that page.

And don't feel bad, meldy, I wasn't complaining about you posting. It's just that sometimes, we've had loooooooong threads about active and passive sentences that would make yours and my heads explode. :) So I thought this might be another one.

MM is right, though. Figure out what it is, be conscious of when you write it, and then slowly you'll learn to consciously avoid it. And after that, you'll learn to unconsciously avoid it, which is even better. Passive sentences not only take up extra words you could be using elsewhere, they lack emotion and they can just be plain confusing.

[BuffStuff]

How about a little example to clear up the confusion.

Passive: Peedee's skull was hit by Buffstuff's fist
Active: Buffstuff's fist hit Peedee's skull.

Read into it all you like, it was just the first example that popped into my head :)

[Duncan J Macdonald]

How about a little example to clear up the confusion.

Passive: Peedee's skull was hit by Buffstuff's fist
Active: Buffstuff's fist hit Peedee's skull.

Read into it all you like, it was just the first example that popped into my head :)

Show-Not-Tell: Buffstuff stared down at PeeDee's crumpled form sprawled on the damp concrete. The fitfull light from the only un-broken streetlight inside of fifty yards illuminated a new bruise on PeeDee's temple. "Damn but I should have taken my ring off first."

[benbradley]

Oh god, here comes an active/passive sentence storm...

Best way to identify them is 1) Go read The Elements of Style.

Here is a wonderful page that gives the gist of it, with arrows. (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_actpass.html)

That's pretty neat page with the arrows and all. But since we're all standing in line to give PeeDee crap:D, I thought I would just quibble with these two sentences from that page:

"Authorities make rules to be broken," he said defiantly.
"Rules are made to be broken," he said defiantly.

These are both ACTIVE sentences, with the subject being "he" and the verb being "said." Furthermore, they both have these "adverb" things (yet another part of speech, pick up any English textbook to learn about them) tacked on the end of a "said" tag, which by about every account I've read, is only acceptable in "Tom Swift" novels.

While I'm at it, the canonical "Tom Swifty" (a type of awful, awful, terrible adverbial pun based on the Tom Swift use of adverbs) I recall is:
"I dropped my toothpaste," Tom said, crestfallen.

grinning, ducking and running...

[Siddow]

If you're feeling totally neurotic, you can highlight paragraph by paragraph, or even sentence by sentence, and run grammar check on just that bit, to identify the passive sentences.

Siddow, who's done that, and ended up telling grammar check to FOAD.

[PeeDee]

How does that give me crap? Sheesh, it's not MY page. The arrows would be magenta if it were, obviously.

Anyway, there's plenty more information and a lot more detail to be had on passive/active sentences, but that page gives you a nice starting point and a basic reference for where you can start to go wrong.

I'm sure Wikipedia probably has a lengthy article on it that's depthier.

[meldy]

Holy moses this kind of took right off last night!

What is FOAD? (I dont know most of the interent speak yet :Shrug:)
F*** off and die? is all I can think of lol??

[scarletpeaches]

Active - the subject is doing something.

Passive - the subject is having something done to it.

[PeeDee]

I'm pretty sure that's what it stands for, yeah... :)