An Interactive Guide to Ambiguous Grammar

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-interactive-guide-to-ambiguous-grammar

Depending on whom you ask, the use of the active voice over the passive is arguably the most fundamental writer’s maxim, thought to lend weight, truth, and power to declarative statements. This absolutist view is flawed, however, because language is an art of nuance. From time to time, writers may well find illustrative value in the lightest of phrases, sentences so weightless and feathery that they scarcely even seem to exist at all. These can convey details well beyond the crude thrust of the hulking active voice, and when used strictly as ornamentation, they needn’t actually convey anything at all.

As a thought experiment, let’s examine in extremely close detail a set of iterative changes that can be made to a single simple grammatical structure, turning it from a statement taken at face value into one loaded with unrealized implication. This makes for rich writing which rewards – or even demands – close scrutiny.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The most fundamental feature of the passive voice is the conversion of the object into the subject by way of a stative verb. This often requires complete structural inversion of the sentence, since the two clauses are changing position, but it allows the roles of the nouns to shift, bringing the secondary participant to the foreground.

The lazy dog is jumped over by the quick brown fox.

Stick with it, even if you're not a grammar fan. Please don't comment about your grammar cop status; that isn't what this is about.

[hlthe2b]

1. Yes. If you publish in Science or Medicine, you entered a field mired in passive voice...

But, the past two decades have (fortunately) brought some (albeit often minimal) switch to active voice.

It is more understandable. There is no doubt of this, but old habits (and dogma) die slowly.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. okay but did you read to the end

[hlthe2b]

8. Yes. Cute.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. Interesting reaction. Thanks!

[hlthe2b]

14. I was referencing ONLY the fox/lazy dog examples--not any extension to problems with

describing police-related violent events. Given the former was the extent of what you excerpted, I focused on what you gave us.

Certainly, I agree this is an example of problematic grammar when extended to real-world serious incidents--where GOOD editors are in so seemingly short supply.

[chia]

2. "The St. Louis County Police Department was involved in an officer-involved shooting..."

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. spoiler

[greenjar_01]

12. That's not a passive voice construction, though

I mean it's vague, and doesn't use a concrete action verb, but it's not vague due to passive voice.

[MineralMan]

5. Yes. Choosing how you write something makes all the difference.

While using the active voice is essential in many kinds of communications, it is not an absolute rule for writers. Not at all.

It's a good starting point, and is effective, particularly in business communications, but with experience, good writers learn how the passive voice has a different sort of impact on the reader.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. So would you say cop PR people are good writers or bad writers

[MineralMan]

7. Mostly very bad writers, frankly.

In fact, most PR folks are poor writers, based on my long experience dealing with them.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. But if the writing does what the writer wants it to -- if the reader is left with

exactly the information the writer wants them to have — that’s certainly effective writing.

[MineralMan]

11. Police press releases are always poorly written.

The cops have their own style sheet, apparently.

the phrase "Officer-involved shooting" is meaningless, for example. It can mean an officer was shot or that an officer shot somebody. It's police-speak.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. Meaningless can also be effective.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

17. Meaninglessness and wordiness are the keys. If I have a headache before reaching the end, ...

... then the author is perfect for PR, or for writing ballot proposals.

[Act_of_Reparation]

13. There's little to be gained overestimating the literacy of the general public.

When writing for a broad audience, you need to be direct.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

16. But, officer, can it not also be otherwise stated that you and I ...

... were equally involved in a high-speed-related caravan which could be described as a car chase?

So give us both a warning and let us part peacefully.

[Emrys]

18. I've long loved this post linked in the OP.

I'd have posted it as an OP on DU before now (I think I linked to in discussion a few years ago), but it relies on animated text for its full impact, so I'd encourage anyone who hasn't done so to click through and read to the end as it unfolds.

SPOILER ALERT:






















It culminates in this:

We have finally fully arrived at the ultimate in passive voice: the past exonerative tense, so named because culpability is impossible when actions no longer exist. For the most extensive erasure of direct communicative value, the original object can now even be removed entirely.

[Midnight Writer]

19. "Mistakes were made."