3 ms·
"at 17 minutes, the reagent was added" ... by god or universal happenstance.
by newsbinator 5y ago
"at 17 minutes, the reagent was added" ... by god or universal happenstance.
- kergonath 5y agoOr the PI, or a technician, or a grad student. The point is, it does not matter who did it.
- mattkrause 5y agoExactly. The only "right" way to choose active vs. passive is to decide what you want to emphasize. When describing an experimental method, it literally does not matter if a Nobel laureate, fresh-faced undergrad, robot, or zombie added the reagent. The point is that it was added, and so the passive voice works fine. However, perhaps it is important that the reader understands how carefully patients were evaluated, rather than the fact that they were evaluated at all. Then, you might choose the active voice and write "A panel of 17 experts carefully evaluated each patient" instead of "patients were evaluated by 17 experts."
- kergonath 5y agoIndeed. Choosing one or the other is making a choice about what should be emphasised. Any form of writing is subjective, and scientific writing is not different.