September 2018
Beginner
70 pages
1h 25m
English
Content preview from Technical Writing for Business People
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9 BE ACTIVE: WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID THE PASSIVE VOICE AND WEAK VERBS
One of the most common – and easily avoided – traps that writers can fall into is using what’s called the ‘passive voice’. In technical writing, it can make reading feel rather like swimming through treacle.
The passive voice is when your writing is unnecessarily distant and stilted. The classic example is writing ‘it was decided that’ instead of ‘we decided’ or ‘they decided’. It’s still correct, but it’s wordier and less punchy.
WHY WEAK WORDS MAKE WRITING WORSE
The passive voice relies on weak ‘passive’ verbs instead of punchy ‘active’ ones. For example, somebody using the passive voice might write:
The big red button should be pushed by the user.
When it’s much better to ...
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