Passive voice == evil.

[Vladimir Kosovac]

Passive voice will not be used anymore!

:-)

Paul W. Frields wrote:
> I have looked over a wide variety of random insertions in some of our
> docs and see a lot of passive voice being used.  Please try to use
> active voice in docs instead of passive voice wherever possible.  The
> folloiwng is an example of the difference between active and passive
> voice:
> 
> PASSIVE (incorrect):  In Fedora 8, a new tool called "FooBar" has been
> introduced to help users create foobars.
> ACTIVE (correct):  Fedora 8 includes a new tool called "FooBar" that
> helps users create foobars.
> 
> Generally, passive voice includes unnecessary forms of the verb "to be,"
> such as "has been," "is," or "was."  Passive voice is unnecessarily
> difficult for translators in some locales to address.
> 
> Here is one way to test for unnecessary passive voice.  If the sentence
> includes a form of the verb "to be," does it:
> 
> (A) describe an *attribute* of the sentence's subject, or
> (B) describe something that happened?
> 
> If the answer is (B), the sentence probably uses passive voice and
> should be reworded.
> 
> Today's English composition tip is brought to you by the letter "M" and
> the number 4. :-)
> 
> 

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