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“Avoid the passive voice” is a rule that annoys me. Sometimes, the rule that’s annoying is more important than the person that’s being annoyed.

version_five 3y ago
There should be an (n+1)th rule for these lists that's break the rules when you want, just know you're breaking them and do it because you like the result better, not out of sloppiness.
- smilespray 3y ago
  My teachers told me this is true for almost all lists of rules. YMMV.
  - Nevermark 3y ago
    Rules (which don’t involve courts & prisons) are just shorthand for reasons. The better you understand the reasons behind the rules, the easier it will be to know when to break them. Or, in an artistic sense, how best to dramatically or subtly break them in service to some creative perspective. Any of them! All of them! This is as true in architecture, rocket design, fashion and etiquette, as it is in prose. —- And this is why organizations that impose process without delegating and encouraging an organization-wide agency to make intentional exceptions, smother innovation so effectively. They lose most of their creative and adaptive abilities.
screamingninja 3y ago
> a rule that annoys me None of these are meant to be "rules" in my understanding. The post starts with "In most instances", so it leaves plenty of room for "exceptions" to the list based on what you intend to convey.
enkid 3y ago
The problem is that most people who say this don't know what the passive voice means. What they want to say is make the most important noun in the sentence the subject and keep the subject near the beginning of the sentence. That concept is only tangentially related to the grammatical voice being used.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- didntcheck 3y ago
  Sometimes passive voice is the best way to do that though, because the subject of the action is more important (e.g. the target of a shooting rather than the shooter). Using active voice would either put the important person at the end, or might require you to find an alternative verb with reversed arguments, resulting in more awkward phrasing
  - enkid 3y ago
    Yes, passive voice is used effectively all the time. The rule was created by grammarian's who didn't understand its effectiveness or overstated its necessity. Judgement should be used to determine when it works.

version_five 3y ago

There should be an (n+1)th rule for these lists that's break the rules when you want, just know you're breaking them and do it because you like the result better, not out of sloppiness.

smilespray 3y ago
My teachers told me this is true for almost all lists of rules. YMMV.
- Nevermark 3y ago
  Rules (which don’t involve courts & prisons) are just shorthand for reasons. The better you understand the reasons behind the rules, the easier it will be to know when to break them. Or, in an artistic sense, how best to dramatically or subtly break them in service to some creative perspective. Any of them! All of them! This is as true in architecture, rocket design, fashion and etiquette, as it is in prose. —- And this is why organizations that impose process without delegating and encouraging an organization-wide agency to make intentional exceptions, smother innovation so effectively. They lose most of their creative and adaptive abilities.

screamingninja 3y ago

> a rule that annoys me None of these are meant to be "rules" in my understanding. The post starts with "In most instances", so it leaves plenty of room for "exceptions" to the list based on what you intend to convey.

enkid 3y ago

The problem is that most people who say this don't know what the passive voice means. What they want to say is make the most important noun in the sentence the subject and keep the subject near the beginning of the sentence. That concept is only tangentially related to the grammatical voice being used.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
didntcheck 3y ago
Sometimes passive voice is the best way to do that though, because the subject of the action is more important (e.g. the target of a shooting rather than the shooter). Using active voice would either put the important person at the end, or might require you to find an alternative verb with reversed arguments, resulting in more awkward phrasing
- enkid 3y ago
  Yes, passive voice is used effectively all the time. The rule was created by grammarian's who didn't understand its effectiveness or overstated its necessity. Judgement should be used to determine when it works.