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But Orwell's rule 4 should be ignored: >iv. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Orwell himself routinely ignores it, even in the first sentenc
by mrob 20d ago
But Orwell's rule 4 should be ignored:
>iv. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Orwell himself routinely ignores it, even in the first sentence of the essay:
>Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it.
The second clause could be rewritten in active voice by changing it to "but people generally assume". But this would make the writing worse, and Orwell, as a good writer, probably didn't even consider the option of making it worse, and therefore didn't notice the passive voice.
Passive voice is an essential tool for all good writers of English. I always give the example of the opening of Pride and Prejudice [0]:
>It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
The joke doesn't work in active voice. If you attribute this acknowledgement to some specific group of people then it's simply false, not a comedic exaggeration.
[0]: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42671 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42671
- bloak 20d agoTechnically, I think, that first sentence, by Austen, uses a passive participle but does not use a passive voice for any finite verb. I don't think that advice to avoid "the passive" is intended to apply to that situation. For example, nobody would seriously suggest avoiding the passive participle in a sentence like "Put the broken plate in the bin". ("Put the plate that someone broke into the bin"?)
- squidbeak 20d ago> But Orwell's rule 4 should be ignored ... Orwell himself routinely ignores it, even in the first sentence of the essay Orwell can answer you himself if you read just a little further: > vi. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
- everybodyknows 20d agoThere's a rather simple reason this is so: A thought is typically most powerfully expressed in a sentence that puts the most surprising or notable word last, immediately before the period. Ideally, without any qualifying adjective/adverb. And "... a wife." really turns on the ears, no? So advice to prefer active voice is not wrong -- but the skilled writer adds other values into the balance.