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What was interesting to me was the use of agents in the English language. In my English classes, using passive voice would get red marks on your paper. So even

by nhebb 16y ago

What was interesting to me was the use of agents in the English language. In my English classes, using passive voice would get red marks on your paper. So even if there were a natural tendency to think in agent-less terms, it would be drilled out of you in class. Running my own business, I now find that passive voice is the most diplomatic way to discuss user error. The customer didn't do the wrong thing, e.g., "you made a typo in the shipping address" becomes "the shipping address had a typo". The wrong thing just happened, with no agent bearing direct blame. :)

lionhearted 16y ago
> Running my own business, I now find that passive voice is the most diplomatic way to discuss user error. The customer didn't do the wrong thing, e.g., "you made a typo in the shipping address" becomes "the shipping address had a typo". The wrong thing just happened, with no agent bearing direct blame. :) Great observation. My rule - when I screwed up or something even peripherally related to me got screwed up, I took full accountability. "That's 100% my error, that's not acceptable, and steps A, B, and C are being taken to fix it. Do you think that will fix things?" When a screw up was on the client side, then it was, "Yeah, things get messed up sometimes, things get broken, it happens..." followed by switching to active voice to work it out.
crux 16y ago
I'm afraid I must mention that while that example does indeed demonstrate how different phrasing can avoid placing blame, it's not a use of the passive voice. The verb 'to have' is just as active as the verb 'to make'. A passive construction would be, 'a typo was made in the shipping address.'
delackner 16y ago
You just reminded me of my own experience of this. All the way into university and writing papers, my natural tendency was to write about subjects in a very passive voice, and it was only slightly reduced because it disagreed with my instincts. Now I live in a culture where the spoken language is dramatically passive and usually actor-less "Q: walk to the store? "A: Sure, walk together!" and I am often told that the way I think seems very much like the locals think themselves. But I was already thinking this way in my own language, I was just considered abnormal...

by nhebb 16y ago

lionhearted 16y ago

> Running my own business, I now find that passive voice is the most diplomatic way to discuss user error. The customer didn't do the wrong thing, e.g., "you made a typo in the shipping address" becomes "the shipping address had a typo". The wrong thing just happened, with no agent bearing direct blame. :) Great observation. My rule - when I screwed up or something even peripherally related to me got screwed up, I took full accountability. "That's 100% my error, that's not acceptable, and steps A, B, and C are being taken to fix it. Do you think that will fix things?" When a screw up was on the client side, then it was, "Yeah, things get messed up sometimes, things get broken, it happens..." followed by switching to active voice to work it out.

crux 16y ago

I'm afraid I must mention that while that example does indeed demonstrate how different phrasing can avoid placing blame, it's not a use of the passive voice. The verb 'to have' is just as active as the verb 'to make'. A passive construction would be, 'a typo was made in the shipping address.'

delackner 16y ago

You just reminded me of my own experience of this. All the way into university and writing papers, my natural tendency was to write about subjects in a very passive voice, and it was only slightly reduced because it disagreed with my instincts. Now I live in a culture where the spoken language is dramatically passive and usually actor-less "Q: walk to the store? "A: Sure, walk together!" and I am often told that the way I think seems very much like the locals think themselves. But I was already thinking this way in my own language, I was just considered abnormal...