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ACTIVE AND PASSSIVE VOICE

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Journalistic Writing ­ MCM310
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LECTURE 12
ACTIVE AND PASSSIVE VOICE
Active Voice, Passive Voice
There are two special forms for verbs called voice:
1. Active voice
2. Passive voice
The active voice is the "normal" voice. This is the voice that we use most of the time. You are probably
already familiar with the active voice. In the active voice, the object receives the action of the verb:
subject
verb
object
active
>
Cats
eat
fish.
The passive voice is less usual. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb:
subject
verb
object
passive
<
Fish
are eaten
by cats.
The object of the active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb:
subject
verb
object
active
Everybody
drinks
water.
passive
Water
is drunk
by everybody.
1. ACTIVE TENSES:
Simple Present
Present
Action
or
Non-action;
Habitual
General Truths
Future Time
Condition
Action
·
I like music.
·
I hear you.
·
·
There are thirty days
The train leaves at
I
run
on
·
Here  comes
the
in September.
4:00 p.m.
Tuesdays
and
bus.
Sundays.
Present Progressive
Activity in Progress
Verbs of Perception
·
·
I am playing soccer now
He is feeling sad
Simple Past
Completed Action
Completed Condition
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Journalistic Writing ­ MCM310
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·
·
We visited the museum yesterday.
The weather was rainy last week.
Past Progressive
Past Action that took place over a period of time
Past Action interrupted by another
·
We were eating dinner when
·
They were climbing for twenty-seven days.
she told me.
Future
With will/won't -- Activity or event that will or won't exist With  going  to  --  future
in
relation
to
or happen in the future
circumstances in the present
·
·
I'll get up late tomorrow.
I'm hungry.
·
·
I won't get up early.
I'm going to get something to eat.
Present Perfect
With events occurring at an indefinite or
With verbs of state that begin in the
To express habitual or
unspecified time in the past -- with ever,
past and lead up to and include the
continued action
never, before
present
·
He has worn
·
He has lived here for many
·
Have you ever been to Tokyo before?
glasses all his
years.
life.
Present Perfect Progressive
To express duration of an action that began in the past, has continued into the present, and may continue into
the future
·
David has been working for two hours, and he hasn't finished yet.
Past Perfect
to describe a past event or condition completed before another In reported speech
event in the past
·
Jane said that she had gone to
·
When I arrived home, he had already called.
the movies.
Future perfect
to express action that will be completed by or before a specified time in the future
·
By next month we will have finished this job.
·
He won't have finished his work until 2:00.
2. PASSIVE VOICE
The structure of the passive voice is very simple:
Subject + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (past participle)
The main verb is always in its past participle form.
Look at these examples:
subject
auxiliary verb (to be)
main verb (past participle)
Water
is
drunk
by everyone.
100 people
are
employed
by this company.
I
am
paid
in euro.
We
are
not
paid
in dollars.
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Journalistic Writing ­ MCM310
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Are
they
paid
in yen?
Use of the Passive Voice
We use the passive when:
·  we want to make the active object more important
·
we do not know the active subject
subject
verb
object
give importance to active object (President
by Lee Harvey
President Kennedy
was killed
Kennedy)
Oswald.
has been stolen
active subject unknown
My wallet
?
.
Conjugation for the Passive Voice
We can form the passive in any tense. In fact, conjugation of verbs in the passive tense is rather easy, as the
main verb is always in past participle form and the auxiliary verb is always be. To form the required tense, we
conjugate the auxiliary verb. So, for example:
·  present simple: It is made
·
present continuous: It is being made
·
present perfect: It has been made
Here are some examples with most of the possible tenses:
infinitive
to be washed
Active
Passive
present
I wash it.
It is washed.
past
I washed it
It was washed.
simple
future
I will wash it.
It will be washed.
conditional
I would wash it.
It would be washed.
present
I am washing it.
It is being washed.
past
I was washing it.
It was being washed.
continuous
future
I will be washing it.
It will be being washed.
conditional
I would be washing it.
It would be being washed.
present
I have washed it.
It has been washed.
past
I had washed it.
It had been washed.
perfect simple
future
I will have washed it.
It will have been washed.
conditional
I would have washed it.
It would have been washed.
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present
I have been washing it.
It has been being washed.
past
I had been washing it.
It had been being washed.
perfect continuous
future
I will have been washing it.
It will have been being washed.
conditional
I would have been washing it.
It would have been being washed.
Source:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-voice.htm
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Table of Contents:
  1. INTRODUCTION TO JOURNALISTIC WRITING:Practical, THINGS TO KNOW
  2. QUALITIES OF GOOD WRITERS
  3. QUALITIES OF GOOD WRITERS
  4. QUALITIES OF GOOD WRITING:Achieve appropriate readability:
  5. QUALITIES OF GOOD WRITING:Be concise, Be creative, Be correct
  6. THE PROCESS OF WRITING:INVENTION, WHEN YOU START TO WRITE
  7. THE PROCESS OF WRITING II:ORGANIZING, DRAFTING, REVISING
  8. ALL ABOUT WORDS:HOW WORDS ARE FORMED?:SUFFIXES
  9. DICTIONARY-A WRITER’S LANGUAGE TOOL:KINDS OF INFORMATION
  10. PARTS OF SPEECH:Noun Gender, Noun Plurals, Countable Nouns
  11. BASIC CLAUSE PATTERNS
  12. ACTIVE AND PASSSIVE VOICE
  13. MODIFIERS AND SENTENCE TYPES:COMPOUND SENTENCES
  14. REPORTED SPEECH:Indirect Questions, Direct commands
  15. GRAMMATICAL SENTENCE – ISSUES:SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT
  16. GRAMMATICAL SENTENCE – ISSUES II:SENTENCE FRAGMENTS
  17. EFFECTIVE SENTENCE:PARALLELISM, NEEDED WORDS, SHIFTS
  18. STYLE: GUIDELINE AND PITFALLS I:COLLOQUIAL VS FORMAL, CIRCUMLOCUTION
  19. STYLE: GUIDELINE AND PITFALLS II:AMBIGUITY, REDUNDANCY, EUPHEMISM:
  20. PARAGRAPH WRITING: TYPES AND TECHNIQUES:STRUCTURE
  21. PARAGRAPH WRITING: TYPES AND TECHNIQUES:Putting on Our Play
  22. ESSAY WRITING:VARIOUS STRATEGIES FOR ESSAYS, PROMPTS
  23. SIGNAL WORDS:Non word Emphasis Signals
  24. EXPOSITORY WRITING:LOGICAL FALLACIES, APPEAL TO EMOTION
  25. THE WRITING STYLES: REPORT and NARRATIVE WRITING, SHORT REPORTS
  26. THE WRITING STYLES: DESCRIPTIVE AND PERSUASIVE WRITINGS, Observation
  27. RESEARCH WRITING AND DOCUMNETING SOURCES:Handling Long Quotations
  28. Summary and Précis Writing:CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD SUMMARY
  29. Punctuation:THE PERIOD, THE COMMA, THE SEMICOLON, THE COLON
  30. MECHANICS:ABBREVIATIONS, NUMBERS, SPELLING, THE HYPHEN
  31. READING SKILLS FOR WRITERS:EDUCATED READING, STEPS
  32. PARTS OF A NEWSPAPER:Box-out, By-line, Caption, Exclusive, Feature
  33. THE LANGUAGE OF THE NEWSPAPERS II:BROADSHEET NEWSPAPER
  34. News Writing and Style I:WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A NEWSPAPER
  35. NEWS WRITING II:Accuracy, Clarity, Style, Qualities of Effective Leads
  36. EDITORIAL WRITING:WRITING AN EDITORIAL:STRUCTURING AN EDITORIAL
  37. WRITING FEATURES:GENERATING FEATURE STORY IDEAS
  38. WRITING COLUMNS:Column and a news report, Purpose, Audience
  39. WRITING ARTICLES FOR NEWSPAPERS:The Heading, The Lead
  40. WRITING ANALYSIS:purpose, scope, method, results, recommendations
  41. LETTERS TO EDITORS:Four important aspects about letters, Organizing letters
  42. BROADCAST AND WEB NEWS WRITING:WRITE CONCISELY, BROADCAST STYLE
  43. WRITING PRESS RELEASE, REVIEWS AND OBITUARIES:Summary of Content:
  44. THE ART OF INTERVIEWINGS
  45. FINAL THOUGHTS:Practical, Job-Related, Social, Stimulating, Therapeutic