ACADEMIC WRITING, THE PASSIVE…

ACADEMIC WRITING,

THE PASSIVE…

License 3^rd year

Academic Year: 2019-2020 Collected by: Dr f.Abi-Ayad

• Is a feature of much academic writing

• Focuses in the action or process

• Often omits the agent (86% of passive verbs in academic writing have no agent)

• Makes writing more impersonal and

formal

WHEN DO WE USE IT?

• When the agent is unknown eg Flats are sold

• When the agent is not important

• When the writer wants to focus on the result

not the cause eg The college was founded in 1925 by Walter Trimble (passive)

Walter Trimble founded the college in 1925

(active)

• In the first sentence, the emphasis is on the college, in the second on Trimble. So the passive is often used in written

English when the cause (a person or

thing) is less important or unknown.

HOW IS IT FORMED?

•

All passive structures have two parts:

Verb to be + past participle

Form of the verb to be Past participle

is constructed

was developed

will be re-organised

Using Passive Voice in Scholarly Writing

passive voice is allowed in academic style and can be quite appropriate

, especially when writing about methods and data collection. However, students often overuse the passive voice in their writing,

which means their emphasis in the sentence is not on the action taker. Their writing is also at risk of being repetitive.

Consider the following paragraph in which the passive voice is used in each sentence:

-A survey was administered. Using a convenience sample,

68 teachers were invited to participate in the survey by emailing them an invitation.

- E-mail addresses of teachers who fit the requirements for participation

were provided by the principal of the school. The teachers were e-mailed an information sheet and a consent form. Responses were collected from 45 teachers…

•As you can see, the reader has no idea who is performing these actions,

• which makes the research process unclear. This is at odds with the goal of the methods discussion,

• which is to be clear and succinct regarding the process of data collection and analysis.

However, if translated entirely to the active voice, clearly indicating the researcher ’s role, “I”

becomes redundant and repetitive, interrupting the flow of the paragraph:

In this study, I administered a survey. I created a convenience sample of 68 teachers.

I invited them to participate in the survey by emailing them an invitation.

I obtained e-mail addresses from the principal of the school…

•“I” is quite redundant here and repetitive for the

reader.

The suggestion is that students use “I” in

the first sentence of the paragraph. Then, as long as it is clear to the reader that the student (writer) is the actor in the remaining sentences,

use the active and passive voices appropriately to achieve precision and clarity (where applicable):

In this study, I administered a survey using a convenience

sample. Sixty-eight teachers were invited to participate in

the survey. The principal of the school provided me with

the e-mail addresses of teachers who fit the requirements for

participation. I e-mailed the teachers an information sheet

and a consent form. A total of 45 teachers responded…