In school my teachers tell me that I shoud avoid using the passive voice while writing essays and things of that nature.  The passive voice may not sound as nice as the active when spoken (oooh, I used it there), but I don’t see any other problem with it.  Why have I been told (there, I did it again) that this is such a faux pas?

- Robby

Perhaps it is being overused, or your teachers are all idiots that can’t tell their assive from their pactive.

Teachers get all kinds of weird ideas.  I think the passive voice is fine.

What they may be thinking is that active sentenses demand more responsiblity by the subject.

It is thought…

People think….

I don’t know!  Type one of your essays up here and we’ll all criticize it!

Sitran

It seems odd to me that people would try to stray from using the passive voice, especially when supposedly proper sentence syntax is based upon Latin.  The passive voice is liberally apllied in many authentic Latin texts…..those crazy teachers!  ;)

- Robby

I’m not sure if the active/passive debate is one that teachers across the pond share with our crew here in the US.  It sounds like a stereotypically American issue—speaking directly and to the point.

-Tim

Rule 11 in Elements of Style (William Strunk) says
"Use the Active Voice"
link: http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk5.html#11

He doesn’t say "Never use the passive" because the passive is useful and sometimes necessary, but he does say writing in the active voice is much more lively and forceful.  He also says the choice between the active and passive voice depends on the context and purpose of the writing, and he gives examples where each would be the better choice.

Fowler, the quintessential British stylist, says the passive "sometimes leads to bad grammar, false idiom, or clumsiness," and gives several somewhat amusing examples ("The order was attempted to be carried out" is not an improvement over "They attempted to carry out the order.")

Cheers, BNJTOKYO

Unfortunately, their are teachers who attempt to limit students’ use of the passive, but fail to control the concept themselves.  I have had students bring me work they’ve done for other teachers with erroneous corrections on them.  

The passive by definition deletes the agent doing the action.  John loves Mary.  Mary is loved.  There are times when the passive is necessary or useful.  "The President was elected by a slim margin."  

I think English teachers everywhere become frustrated with trying to solve 100 different writing problems (one per student, give or take) and retreat into blanket approaches.  Since most student writers misuse the passive, and the passive is fairly easily detected, we can say, No Passives! and fix many problems.  Unfortunately, not all students make passive errors, nor can they all detect passives, so for every error we blast a shotgun at, we fix some and create others.  

Writing needs to be taught one-to-one.  Ha!  Like that’s going to happen!

Here’s a great story about using the passive:

A professor and published grammarian, Mark Lester, once worked at the East/West Center for Linguistics.  His supervisor sent around a memo, "Passives should be avoided." :D ;D ::)

You’ve got to love it!

Very funny, rosewoman!

Sitran

Not all passive sentences have a corresponding active sentence.  For example

The western part of Cyprus is inhabited with speakers of Greek.

and the corresponding active voice sentence:

Speakers of Greek inhabit the western part of Cyprus.

(In view of current efforts to resolve a long standing dispute and the desire of Cypriots to join the EU, I will not attribute any nationality to the inhabitants of the island.)

In contrast consider the following passive sentence:

Elephant Island is uninhabited.

There is no corresponding active sentence because it defies logic to say

*(Someone) uninhabited Elephant Island.

Who would someone be?  Shackleton and his companions, who did inhabit the island for a year or two?

Cheers, BNJTOKYO

[quote author=bnjtokyo link=board=grammar;num=1078798202;start=0#8 date=03/11/04 at 02:46:47]Elephant Island is uninhabited.

There is no corresponding active sentence because it defies logic to say

*(Someone) uninhabited Elephant Island.

You could change the verb:

Elephant Island remains uninhabited.

-Tim

[quote author=bnjtokyo link=board=grammar;num=1078798202;start=0#8 date=03/11/04 at 02:46:47]Not all passive sentences have a corresponding active sentence.  For example

The western part of Cyprus is inhabited with speakers of Greek.

and the corresponding active voice sentence:

Speakers of Greek inhabit the western part of Cyprus.
. . .

Some of the inhabitants of the western part of Cyprus speak Greek.

In contrast consider the following passive sentence:

Elephant Island is uninhabited.

There is no corresponding active sentence because it defies logic to say

*(Someone) uninhabited Elephant Island.

Who would someone be?  Shackleton and his companions, who did inhabit the island for a year or two?
. . .

Actually, that’s a bad example.  The AHD says that "uninhabited" is an adjective, so it is an active sentence.

un·in·hab·it·ed
adj.
Having no residents; not inhabited.

"Uninhabited Elephant Island is."
    Master Yoda

But it’s too close to lunch time to come up with a better example at the moment.