Category Archives: Sentences

Active and Passive Verbs

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Active and Passive voice causes  writers many, many problems. In business writing, you want to use active voice because sentences in active voice are more direct and forceful. Active voice sentences clearly identify who is doing the action. This reduces confusion and increases brevity in business documents.

In passive voice, who or what does the action of the sentence is implied, unknown, or comes after the verb in the sentence. Passive voice is often used when a writer wants to deflect blame or criticism, or when the action of the sentence is more important than the doer/actor.

The easiest way to determine if a verb is active or passive is to ask the following two questions:

What is the verb?

Who/what is doing the action (verb)?

If you know who is acting = active voice

If you’re unsure who is acting = passive voice

 

Are the following sentences active or passive?

1.     Companies expect accounting positions to increase in the next ten years.

  • What is the verb? Expect
  • Who/what is expecting? Companies
  • This sentence is active.

2.  They have to work with computers.

  • What is the verb? Work
  • Who is working? “They”
  • This sentence is active.

3.   The report was left on the desk.

  • What is the verb? Left
  • Who/what left the report? We don’t know.
  • This sentence is passive.

4.  Several students were failed because of poor writing.

  • What is the verb? Failed
  • Who failed the students? We don’t know.
  • This sentence is passive.

 

Once you’ve identified passive verbs, how do you change them to active verbs?

 

  1. Identify the verb
  2. Identify who is doing the action of the verb.
  3. Name the actor as the subject.

 

Consider the following examples of passive verbs changed into active verbs.

  • I was identified by the MBTI as an IFNJ.
  1. Verb is “identified”
  2. Who identified? The MBTI
  3. Revised: The MBTI identified me as an IFNJ.

 

  • A new program was devised for making automatic payments.
  1. Verb is “devised”
  2. Who devised? We don’t know, so we must add or name the subject
  3. Revised: Technicians devised a new program for making automatic payments. Or: The new program is for making automatic payments.

Now, find the passive verbs in your writing by asking:

  1. What is the verb?
  2. Who is doing the action of the verb?

Change the sentence to active voice by naming the actor (who/what does the action of the verb) first in the sentence (before the verb).

 

 

Conciseness

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Being concise means using as few words as possible to effectively and clearly relay your message.

Throughout most of your education, you have been required to fill a designated number of pages and learned to use a lot of words to fill space.

In business, time is money and hiding your message within long, wordy sentences will cost your company time.

Read this article to learn more about writing concisely.

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/572/1/

 

 

Expletives or It Is S***tty Writing

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In grammar studies, Expletives (E) aren’t those words your mom and teachers told you not to say. They are sentences starting with “It is” or “There are.”

These constructions are generally wordy and bury the sentence’s main point.  In business writing, avoid these constructions whenever possible.

Correct: Job opportunities should rise fifteen percent in Minnesota

Incorrect: There is expected to be a fifteen percent growth in Minnesota.

Correct: Managers must make strong decisions.

Incorrect: As a manager, it is important to make strong decisions.

Correct: Accounting requires many detailed courses.

Incorrect: There are so many detailed courses in accounting.

Removing expletives makes your main point clearer, not hidden under so many words, and the sentences are less wordy.

 

Check Your Homophones

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Homophones are the words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings.  Spell check doesn’t always catch homophones so you need proofread carefully.  Check out the Grammarly.com blog-post (edited) below to see some common homophones.

For the full post, see:

http://www.grammarly.com/blog/2015/25-homophones-that-most-spell-checkers-wont-catch/?source=trending&position=2

 

25 Homophones That Most Spell-Checkers Won’t Catch

Kimberly Joki ··

While Grammarly has algorithms that will help you correct all of these common mix-ups, there’s no substitute for the old noggin. So next time you’re writing, be sure to put on your thinking cap and look out for these homophones that most spell checkers won’t catch.

A while/Awhile

It had been a while since the long-lost lovers had seen each other, but their passion was still so true they didn’t mind waiting awhile for their fast-approaching reunion.

Accept/Except

Everyone except Christopher, who has already discovered the truth, needs to accept the fact that the world is not flat.

Affect/Effect

The technicians didn’t realize that the special effect that creepily breathed down viewers necks would affect audience members so deeply. People ran out of the theater screaming.

Aide/Aid

The teacher’s aide was the first to arrive at school that day. So when the tornado hit, she gave as much aid to the kids as possible.

Aloud/Allowed

After breaking the television set he wasn’t allowed to touch, Bart had to repeat this phrase aloud 1,000 times: I will not replace the television dials with marshmallows.

Anytime/Any time

Call anytime! Actually, scratch that. Call me at any time after 5:00 p.m.

Bizarre/Bazaar

The strange, old-fashioned bazaar featured a freak show made up of bizarre and mysterious people.

Capital/Capitol

The protesters left their own state capitals to converge on the Capitol building in Washington, DC, and rally for their cause.

Cite/Site/Sight

The site of the excavation came into sight as they emerged from the tunnel. If the bones were in fact dinosaur bones, then scientists would need to cite the analysis taken from this discovery in every paleontology research paper for the next hundred years.

Compliment/Complement

The winemaker received compliment after compliment for her incredible pairing. Each selected dish seemed the perfect complement to the chosen vintages.

Conscience/Conscious

My conscience plagues me most when I’m sleeping. Then, when I wake up, I become conscious of the guilt I’m feeling for my actions.

Desert/Dessert

If only this hot, sandy desert was made of dessert. Then I could simply eat my way out of it.

Elude/Allude

If you’re going to allude to your diamond heist so casually in conversation, you should prepare to elude the authorities, who will most likely find out about the theft.

Ensure/Insure

It seems strange that in order to ensure my son can receive medical treatment, I need to insure him with the healthcare company on the day of his birth.

Every day/Everyday

Just because the office attire is everyday wear doesn’t mean you should wear the same clothes every day.

Formerly/Formally

Formerly a Buddhist monk clothed only in a tunic, he was confused by the need to dress formally, in a shirt and tie, for work.

Guerilla/Gorilla

The paramilitary forces had a new tactic; they were going to use actual gorillas as foot soldiers in their guerilla warfare.

Led/Lead,

He led them through the dangerous forest of giant spiders with only a headlamp and a lead pipe. As the lead scout, he needed to be brave and fearless even though he felt incredibly frightened.

One/Won

She won the costumed thumb war competition by one measly point.

Pedal/Peddle

If you want to peddle stolen goods to innocent people, you’d better be prepared to pedal your bike as fast as you can away from the town when you’re done.

Pore/Pour

If you pore over your schoolbooks with the same discipline that you apply to gaming, I won’t be forced to pour this macaroni over your head.

Premier/Premiere

The premier of Switzerland eagerly awaited the premiere of the new production of the Sound of Music. The woman cast as Maria was the country’s premier actress.

Principle/Principal

School principals should be people of principle. Their behavior and attitude should, in principle, be an example to all students.

Reign/Rein

Take the reins and lead the horse as if you’re ruling a kingdom and your reign has lasted five decades.

Weather/Whether

Who cares about the weather? We’re going to have a good time regardless of whether it’s raining, snowing, or glowing.

Semicolons and Colons

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Semicolons are used to join complete thoughts. They generally appear before transition words such as however, therefore, consequently. Both examples below show correct semicolon use:

  • Rachel was about to graduate; she was looking for a position.
  • Rachel was about to graduate; consequently, she was looking for a position.

Colons are used to introduce lists and long quotations. Occassionally, colons separate two clauses when the second clause explains the first. The following examples show correct colon use.

  • Rachel started by checking two popular sites: Monster and CareerBuilder.
  • The recruiter said: “A thoughtful follow-up letter carries as much clout as a cover letter. Be sure to send both.”
  • A post-interview message should deliver one main point: you want the job.

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Transitions

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Transitions help your reader move smoothly from one idea to the next.

Transitions such as “first, next, lastly” help readers follow the organization of your document and the progression of your ideas. As a writer, you want to develop smooth and subtle transitions. Repetition of a key word or phrase or use of a dependent clause can help guide the reader through your document.

Follow this link to read more about writing smooth transitions:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/574/01/