Active Voices from History

By Fidget

 

To make your writing more emphatic,

Consider some others than grammatic.

Subject before,

To you I implore,

Consider active voice, not static.

 

((Passive voice: a curse on the essayists! It makes writing, even story writing, weak and confusing. Sometimes it can be used to your advantage, but I suggest you strive for active voice. Examples of passive voice and how it can be turned to active:

 

(Direct objects are bold, subjects are italicized.)

 

The English at Orleans were defeated by Joan of Arc.

 

...turns into...

 

Joan of Arc defeated the English at Orleans.

 

Voila. See how the subject was transferred to the beginning of the sentence? And once more.

 

Pope Gregory XI was convinced by Catherine de Siena to move back to Rome.

 

...turns into...

 

Catherine de Siena convinced Pope Gregory XI to move back to Rome.

 

Why yes, I do have a history test soon, how kind of you to notice. How about one last example?

 

The European History test was eaten by the owl and crunched into little smithereens.

 

...turns into...

 

The owl ate the European History test and crunched it into little smithereens.

 

Questions? Comments? E-mail me at missthis@hotmail.com, or notify me on the Golden Pen Forum.))