4 ms·
To be fair, the article is poorly written. I had to read the article a few times before I understood that the victim was a target of a car bomb. her car... was
by tantalor 9y ago
To be fair, the article is poorly written. I had to read the article a few times before I understood that the victim was a target of a car bomb.
her car... was destroyed by a powerful explosive device which blew the car into several pieces
This has some problems,
1. Passive voice; should be "a bomb destroyed her car"
2. Vague; how powerful exactly was this bomb? did it destroy nearby cars? or only hers?
3. Missing important details; was she in the car? near it?
- ellius 9y agoI hate to nitpick about grammar in the context of such a grave topic, but the passive voice is not always bad, and you could make a plausible defense of its use here. The most common reason for using the passive voice is when the subject of the sentence is more interesting than the object or had already been mentioned in prior sentences, and thus is more familiar to the reader. Using familiar names and ideas aids in the overall flow of the piece and is considered good style, even at the cost of weakening a verb.
- johnchristopher 9y agoFWIW, I was taught in school that passive voice is the default mode of the English language.
- kingofpandora 9y agoThere is nothing wrong about using passive voice.