Improving Your Writing: Active Vs. Passive Voice

Let’s talk about voice. Understanding the voice of your writing is very important to improving the overall quality of the message. The most important distinction is active vs. passive voice. Most of the time, you are going to want to write in the active voice. It uses a logical, more satisfying word order. Equally important is to know the difference between the two so that you can skillfully use whichever is best suited for your rhetorical situation. This post will teach you both of these concepts as well as showing you when to use passive instead of active voice. Let’s take a deep dive into both.

 

Active voice:

In active voice, the subject of the sentence acts upon the verb. It may also perform the verb upon the object if there is one. This means that active voice leads with the subject, followed by the verb, then the object. Let’s look at some examples.

Jack jumped over the table

The cat scared the mouse

Every night blackens the town.

Notice how each of these simple sentences follow a subject-verb-object word order. This is advantageous in English writing because it reads more naturally.

 

 

Passive voice:

Passive voice does the opposite. A sentence is in passive voice when the subject is acted on by the verb. You can see how a reader would have a harder time relating to this type of sentence. While it may be an abstract concept to imagine how you’ve been acted upon by a verb, doing one is a natural thing. Let’s change the above examples into passive voice.

The table was jumped over by Jack

The mouse was scared by the cat.

The town is blackened each night.

You will also notice that the active examples are shorter. This is a direct result of the stylistic choice because passive voice requires the writer to craft more wordy sentences. Make your choices skillfully.

Of Composition and Podcasts

During quarantine, as I’ve had to watch more video calls than I ever wanted to in my life, I’ve found myself drawn to the lower stakes presentations done through podcasts. Listening to lectures doesn’t just give me something to do but engages me. The techniques used in podcasts encourage me to not only seek out more but consider making my own, as well.

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Strategies For Improving Your Writing: Parallelism

There are many concepts that intermediate and developing writers will have to learn to make improvements in their work. First, it’s grammar and spelling. Eventually, writers need to explore more complex concepts to elevate their skills and gain more control over their literature. Parallelism is one of these concepts. It is used by every successful author and scholar, and you should learn it too. But don’t click away if you’ve already been introduced to this topic, there will be valuable information in this article for writers of all levels.

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The Important Art of Visual Health Communication

We often take for granted the intersection of visual communication and public health advocacy. When I worked in sexual health advocacy, for example, zines and comic books as advocacy tools were devalued as cute but ultimately insignificant efforts, more arts than prevention science.

During the coronavirus crisis, however, the importance of visual health communication has shown itself in the overabundance of visual information circulating on the internet and in the scarce places we may visit. Stores have X’s on the ground to indicate where we should stand to practice social distancing; workplaces and dorms are posting signs on basic hygiene practices. The UN is even calling for informative art posters during this global pandemic.

Coronavirus Poster

A poster detailing how to limit the spread of COVID-19. From a dorm at St. Cloud State University

Not every message is created equally, however.

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Persuasion in Culture

Let’s talk about persuasion. It is easy to forget that this is what rhetoric is all about. Since the beginning of humans and language, we have been attempting to persuade each other in one way or another. We see it in politics and ad campaigns. We also see it everyday conversation and life. It is everywhere and you should be aware of how you are being persuaded. Traditionally, all persuasion falls into three categories: logos, ethos, and pathos. Let’s take a look at what each of these old Greek concepts mean.

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Writing Centers: Perception V.S. Reality

Writing Centers: Perception V.S. Reality

Written by Zackary Boos

 

I began my journey in the world of writing centers early last year in January of 2019. Not as a tutor, but as a student learning to become one. I came in with many of the typical wrong ideas, expecting to showoff skills in correcting grammar. Over the course of that chilly spring semester, I learned the reality of today’s writing centers, and today I’ve nearly completed my first year of working at St. Cloud State University’s Write Place. Increasingly, writing centers are becoming more of an integral feature to American colleges and universities. Through many different structural and ideological changes, writing centers have become perceived as remedial learning facilities for students, for lacking in skill, and even as a copy-editing service. Read on to learn truth of today’s writing centers.

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