Understanding 'To Be' Verbs and Passive Voice in English Writing, Study notes of Voice

Download Understanding 'To Be' Verbs and Passive Voice in English Writing and more Study notes Voice in PDF only on Docsity! U H C L W ritin g C en ter “To Be” Verbs and Passive Voice U H C L W ritin g C en ter U H C L W ritin g C en ter What is a “to be” verb? •A verb that is used in a number of ways in the English language, including linking, passive construction, and auxiliary •Has many forms, including is, am, are, was, were, be, being, and been U H C L W ritin g C en ter U H C L W ritin g C en ter Linking Verbs • “To be” verbs are used as linking verbs to describe the role or description of the subject. They are called this because they link the subject and the subject complement. • Examples: The cat is black. • They are late to the party. • He was not very happy. • Driving a car is faster than walking. U H C L W ritin g C en ter U H C L W ritin g C en ter Now you try! •Create a sentence that describes something with a linking verb. U H C L W ritin g C en ter U H C L W ritin g C en ter Auxiliary verbs •Used with progressive and progressive perfect tenses • Present progressive: The dog is barking. • Past progressive: The dog was barking. • Future progressive: The dog will be barking. • Present perfect progressive: The dog has been barking for five minutes. • Past perfect progressive: The dog had been barking when I got home. • Future perfect progressive: The dog will have been barking for 20 minutes by the time I finish this workshop! U H C L W ritin g C en ter U H C L W ritin g C en ter Passive Voice •Passive voice occurs with the emphasis is placed on the object of the action rather than the subject. • Example: • Active voice: The boy threw the ball. • Passive voice: The ball was thrown. U H C L W ritin g C en ter U H C L W ritin g C en ter Why use passive voice? • The actor is unknown: • The cave paintings of Lascaux were made in the Upper Old Stone Age. [We don't know who made them.] • The actor is irrelevant: • An experimental solar power plant will be built in the Australian desert. [We are not interested in who is building it.] • You want to be vague about who is responsible: • Mistakes were made. [Common in bureaucratic writing!] U H C L W ritin g C en ter U H C L W ritin g C en ter Why use passive voice? (cont.) • You are talking about a general truth: • Rules are made to be broken. [By whomever, whenever.] • You want to emphasize the person or thing acted on. For example, it may be your main topic: • Insulin was first discovered in 1921 by researchers at the University of Toronto. It is still the only treatment available for diabetes. • You are writing in a scientific genre that traditionally relies on passive voice. Passive voice is often preferred in lab reports and scientific research papers, most notably in the Materials and Methods section: • The sodium hydroxide was dissolved in water. This solution was then titrated with hydrochloric acid. (Corson, Tim and Rebecca Smollett) U H C L W ritin g C en ter U H C L W ritin g C en ter Now you try! •Create a sentence in the passive voice. U H C L W ritin g C en ter U H C L W ritin g C en ter Works Cited Corson, Tim and Rebecca Smollett. “Passive Voice: When To Use It and When To Avoid It." University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto, n.d. Web. 12 Nov, 2014. “Active/Passive Verb Forms.” Englishpage.com. Language Dynamics, n.d. Web. 12 Nov, 2014.