Entries for September 2008

0 comments Contributed by Janette Siu on 26 September 2008 at 14:39

Passive voice seems to be a favorite pet peeve of certain professors. They'll underline a sentence in your paper and write in angry red pen, "Don't use passive voice!" However, they often don't explain what passive voice actually is.

In fact, passive voice can be a little difficult to spot until you've been trained. You may or may not have noticed that the title of this article is written in passive voice. What makes it passive voice, and why is this such a heinous crime?

In grammatical terms, passive voice is making the direct object of the sentence into the subject of the sentence. In other, less confusing words, when you take the thing doing the action and put it after the verb (or delete it from the sentence), and then you take the thing having the action done to it and put it before the verb, that's passive voice. All of that explaining makes a very long sentence, so an example here will make the best explanation.

Passive voice: The cow was milked by the farmer.
In this sentence, the cow is having the action (milking) done to it, and it's the subject of the sentence. The farmer is the one doing the action, but he's the subject of a prepositional phrase, not the subject of the sentence. So your professor would want you to rewrite this sentence in...

Active voice: The farmer milked the cow.
Now the person doing the action (the farmer) is the subject of the sentence. This sentence is better than the one in passive voice because it is shorter and simpler.

The key to passive voice is that it often disguises who or what is doing the action in the sentence. Take the title of this entry, for example. If it wasn't for the little line beneath the title that says who contributed this entry, you would be at a complete loss as to who the author was.

This can be a good thing; when writing technical or scientific documents, you might want to avoid saying "I concluded the experiment at 4:30 pm," and instead say, "The experiment was concluded at 4:30 pm." Another situation in which you might want to use passive voice would be if you didn't know who did the action: "Some bones had been buried in our backyard, so we called Sherlock Holmes for help." In this sentence, the first half is in passive voice, because we don't know who buried the bones. However, the second half of the sentence is in active voice, because we do know who called Sherlock Holmes. (If your professor insisted, though, you could change the sentence to active voice by saying, "Someone buried some bones in our backyard, so we called Sherlock Holmes.")

Professors like active voice because it generally produces shorter, clearer sentences. In active voice, you find out more quickly who is doing what, which makes it easier for the reader to follow what you're writing. So here are some tricks to help you catch passive voice in your papers:

1) Ask yourself if it's clear who or what is doing the verb in your sentences.
2) Check to make sure that the person or thing doing the action is mentioned before the verb.
3) Keep an eye out for forms of the verb "to be," such as "is," "was," "has," "are," "were," etc. If there is a "to be" verb in your sentence AND an action verb (such as "written," "milked," "concluded," or "buried"), that's a hint that you may have written a sentence in passive voice.

If you find a passive voice sentence lurking in your paper, rearrange it so the person doing the action is at the beginning of the sentence. That might require you to figure out who is doing the action in the first place, but figuring out specifics like that can only help your paper. For practice, you can help me fix my title, because I wrote this about passive voice.

0 comments Contributed by Janette Siu on 18 September 2008 at 23:21

The bad signs start when the prof announces that he's assigning a paper today. He passes out the instructions, which cover an entire page in a font so tiny, you need a microscope to read it. But at the bottom is the worst: in large, bold, underlined, and italicized font, it says, "Make sure you have a clearly stated THESIS."

That dreadful, sinking feeling attacks. The Formal Paper strikes again. How are you going to avoid being a casualty of the battle between man and language?

A good thesis is the key to a good paper. So Step 1 in this less-than-12-step program is figuring out how to catch one of those elusive "good theses."

If you Google "define: thesis," you'll end up with a lot of fancy, confusing explanations for what a thesis is (as well as some stray definitions about a movie, a band, a font, and a group of smart Germans). In reality, though, a thesis is much simpler than the textbook writers would like you to believe. A thesis is simply a sentence with a SUBJECT and an OPINION.

Well, that's easy. My thesis will be, "Black and white cows look better than brown and white ones." Granted, this has a subject (black and white cows) and an opinion (they look better than brown and white ones). However, this thesis doesn't qualify as a good thesis because the opinion is not "defensible." I would not be able to find data to back up my statement, because the opinion I stated was my personal preference, and not based on any logical reasoning.

So, I'll change my thesis. It will now be, "Cows are very useful animals." Once again, I have a subject (cows) and an opinion (they're useful). However, this thesis still doesn't qualify as a good thesis, because this one is not "arguable." It would be difficult to find someone who would disagree with the statement that cows are useful, since the uses of cows (they produce milk and meat) are widely known and accepted.

So I need to try something else. My new thesis will be, "Cows model a lifestyle that humans should adopt." My subject is still there (cows) and my opinion (humans should copy cows' lifestyle). I can check if it's arguable: do most people believe that humans should live like cows? No, I would have to work to convince most people that this is true, so it passes the test of being arguable. Next, I can check if it's defensible: can I find information that logically supports my opinion? Yes, I could discuss aspects of a cow's lifestyle and cite scientific studies that demonstrate positive results for similar habits in humans. Therefore, my thesis is also defensible. This thesis has passed all my tests! Does that mean it's a good thesis?

The last thing to check is very subjective, but important nonetheless. Does the topic of the thesis interest me? Do I think it would intrigue someone else and make them want to read my paper? Personally, I'm fascinated by the human benefits of bovine living, and I think someone else would be curious enough about the topic to read what I have to say. So... I have a good thesis for my paper!

Notice that the winning thesis was not particularly long, nor did it contain especially long words. There's no need to make a thesis any more elaborate than it has to be; in fact, it's better if it's simple! The easier it is for the reader to figure out what you're saying, the more they'll enjoy reading your paper. (And you want the professor to enjoy reading your paper, because then he'll be more likely to give you a good grade.)

So the next time you get that assignment sheet demanding a clear thesis, be not afraid. When you come up with a thesis that passes the tests of being arguable, defensible, and interesting, you'll know you have a good one, which will guide your paper to success!

0 comments Contributed by Janette Siu on 10 September 2008 at 23:59

In my favorite book of all time, a boy named Milo travels to the city of words, where he's asked to give a speech at the royal banquet.

"Your Majesty, ladies and gentlemen," started Milo timidly, "I would like to take this opportunity to say that in all the--"
"That's quite enough," snapped the king. "Mustn't talk all day."

Shortly thereafter, the waiters bring Milo his lunch: a tray of the words in his speech.

"Dig in," said the king, poking Milo with his elbow and looking disapprovingly at his plate. "I can't say that I think much of your choice."
"I didn't know that I was going to have to eat my words," objected Milo.
"Of course, of course, everyone here does," the king grunted. "You should have made a tastier speech."

If we knew that we would have to eat the words we spoke or wrote, would we choose them differently? The smorgasbord of choices is nearly endless; words come in every flavor imaginable: spicy, savory, salty, sweet, and so much more. But how to delve into this prodigious buffet of vocabulary?

Memorizing words from a vocabulary list usually isn't the most effective way to learn them, because vocabulary lists lack a vital half of the meaning of a word. The denotative meaning (the one you'll find in the dictionary) is included, but not the connotative meaning (the implications of the word and its common usage). Hence, the best way to learn new vocabulary is to read! Read publications that use more advanced vocabulary, like the New York Times, or read an entertaining book that uses some words that are unfamiliar to you. Observe words in their natural habitat, a place called Context.

When you're looking for that "good word" to insert in your essay and lend it the proper flair, be careful not to pick a word if you aren't exactly sure what it means. Use a thesaurus only to remind yourself of the words you already know, rather than to find a fancier-sounding word that might not actually fit in your sentence.

With that, venture into vibrant vocabulary, and avoid falling victim to a malapropism. What is that? Try doing a little reading on the subject...