passive/active voice and wordiness how to write something worth reading
TRANSCRIPT
PASSIVE/ACTIVE VOICE AND WORDINESS
How to Write Something Worth Reading
Passive vs. Active Voice
Social media is meant to be used as a way for people to stay in touch with one another.
People use social media to stay in touch. Mark Zuckerberg and others created social
media sites for people to stay in touch.
Passive Active
Social media is meant to be used as a way for people to stay in touch with one another.
People use social media to stay in touch.
Mark Zuckerberg and others created social media sites for people to stay in touch.
Passive vs. Active Voice
Sentence Construction
Social media is meant to be used as a way for people to stay in touch with one another.
Object becomes the subject. [Social media]
Verb used is weak. [Is]
Passive
Sentence Construction
Mark Zuckerberg and others created social media sites for people to stay in touch.
Clear Subject and Object/Performer of action and Recipient of action. [Mark Zuckerberg and others/social media]
Strong verb used. [Created]
Active
Wordiness
Omit needless words!Reread your sentences. I’ve gone through
and marked a few places where you can omit words that do not add anything to the sentence.
Leave only words that serve a very specific purpose.
Wordiness
People today put way too many pictures on Facebook, opening themselves up to a lot of different problems.
People today put way too many pictures on Facebook, opening themselves up to a lot of different problems.
Rewritten
People today put way too many pictures on Facebook, opening themselves up to a lot of different problems.
Facebook users invite problems when they post too many pictures or too much information.
Revisions
Work hard on this. Take your time. Try to find the best way to say what you are trying to say. You may also add to your paper.
The purpose of the activity is to help you learn to write in a way that will help you in your careers.
I will collect these and re-grade them. Your grade will come mostly from your use of active/passive voice and absence of wordiness. I’ll look at the ideas, as well.