提示单
主动和被动语态

Grammatically correct writing is good. But 不 all grammatically correct writing is equally good. Better writers have learned that, most of the time, 活跃的 verb constructions are better than 被动 的. 如果你学会识别 被动语态 verbs and recast them into 主动语态, your writing will improve.

Active voice is direct, strong, and easy to understand. Active voice verbs create movement, clarity, and impact. Passive voice, on the other hand, seems roundabout, weak, and evasive. 被动语态由a “to be”动词 (is, was, were, are) with a past-participle verb form (written, given, expected): "was managed," "were approved," "is to be completed."

(Note: past and present progressive verbs, "are shopping" or "were discussing" 例如, are 不 被动语态. The -ing form requires the helper verb "to be." Similarly, verbs in the present and past perfect tenses, "have eaten," "had attended," are 不 被动; these perfect tenses use the participle form along with the helper verb "to have.")

演员/接收器
Most sentences have both an 演员 that performs the action, and something which is acted upon, 或者接收动作. 当 演员 是 主题 of the sentence, the 活跃的 voice results. In English, we expect to hear statements in that sequence: 演员, verb, 接收机 of the action:

Bob writes limericks in his spare time.

它是, 然而, possible to write this sentence a不her way, making the limerick the 主题 of the sentence. In 被动语态 the 演员, that is, the one 谁 did it, is 不 the 主题 of the sentence. The 演员, in this case the limerick writer, is moved into a prepositional phrase:

The limerick was written by Bob in his spare time.

The expected 演员-verb-接收机 sequence is reversed; instead the pattern here is 接收机-verb-演员. 利默里克 就变成了 主题 of the sentence, yet it is still the 接收机 of the action (that is, the limerick did 不 do 写作).

The problem with 被动语态 is that your brain has to take a moment to unravel this. There are more words, for one thing, and the grammar is more complicated. A moment doesn't seem like long, but 当 you are reading a document loaded with 被动语态 constructions, 时刻累积起来. That's why it seems to take so much time and effort to read some government publications–or poorly written textbooks. Writing filled with 被动语态 constructions are slow to read and difficult to understand.

Passive voice is 不 intrinsically evil, nor should you aim to eliminate it at every instance. If the limerick itself is more important than 谁 wrote it, 例如, 被动语态 五月 be appropriate. 在一般情况下, place the most important word near the beginning of the sentence, as mass media writers do; this 五月 result in a 被动 construction, but more often it will 不.

失踪的演员
Sometimes the use of 被动语态 causes the 演员 to disappear entirely. Here, we are interested primarily in 当 the limerick was written:

The limerick was written last week. (Who wrote it is 不 an issue.)

然而, if you use 被动语态 out of habit rather than by choice, the disappearance of the 演员 五月 have unintended consequences. In informative writing, 例如, 谁 said it is often as important as what was said. If you construct sentences that bury the 演员 in a prepositional phrase or omit the 演员 entirely, your argument 五月 appear evasive and weak. 比较以下内容:

Passive voice, 演员 omitted:
Reporters have been told that traffic, 噪音, and congestion would result from the proposed development. (谁告诉他们的? And are the reporters the most important thing here?)

Active voice, 演员 as 主题:
The development will bring traffic, 噪音, and congestion to nearby Spyglass Road, say neighbors of the proposed site.

事实上, a writer 五月 deliberately use 被动语态 to break bad news or to deny responsibility for something unpleasant. Business writers know this.

Passive voice, 演员 omitted:
Your auto insurance policy, unfortunately, will 不 be renewed in October.

然而, a vast number of 被动 constructions exist in college and business writing with no good justification.

The spelling and grammar checker in some word processing programs (Microsoft Word, 例如) can be set to report to you how many 被动 constructions appear in your document. Try recasting some of those sentences into 活跃的 voice to achieve no more than 10 percent 被动语态 constructions.

If you learn to prefer 活跃的 voice 当ever possible, your writing is almost certain to improve.