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Passive Voice and
Literary Present
World Literature
What is Passive Voice?
• Passive voice is when a writer constructs a
sentences that does not have the subject
doing the action.
• It is a problem because it makes the sentence
less coherent and more difficult to read.
Identifying the passive voice
All passives consist of a form of the verb to be (am, is,
are, was, were, being, been) plus a past participle.
Example: The boy was impressed by Ms. Jones.
• A past participle is the ed form of regular verbs – for
irregular verbs: en, n, t (i.e. spent) – and can fill the
empty slot in this sentence:
• “I had _______ it.”
When should you use the active voice?
Use active voice unless you are
required or have very specific
reasons for doing otherwise.
Active voice generally leads to more
concise writing.
It clarifies who is performing the
action.
Take a look at the sentences below:
For each sentence, identify the
subject and the verb.
• Nancy dropped her keys.
• The keys were dropped by Nancy.
Identify which sentences are correct and which
are passive. Correct the passive sentences to
make them correct
1. The dog was taken for a walk by his owner, Sam.
2. Sam took his dog, Toby, to the dog park.
3. The park was cleaned by the neighborhood association.
4. The park needed new grass and trees.
5. Toby saw a squirrel, and his owner lost the leash.
6. He was punished by his owner.
Literary Present
• Unlike a real event, a scene within a work of
art does not happen once and for all. It is
always ready to be experienced afresh by a
new reader, viewer or listener. Consequently,
the time frame for discussing such a scene is
the present.
• Though you should use the past tense to write
about the historical creating of the ‘art’ work,
you should use the present tense to convey
what the work ‘says to us.’ This function of
the present tense is called the literary
present.
Literary Present and Historical Past
Literary Present
Shakespeare reveals Hamlet’s mind through soliloquy.
OR
Dickens exposes the conditions of London’s slums in Oliver Twist.
Historical Past
Shakespeare was probably familiar with the plays of Kyd and
Marlowe when he wrote his great tragedies.
OR
Charles Dickens wrote several novels that exposed social injustice
during England’s Industrial Revolution.
Quoted Text in Past Tense
Do not allow the past form of a quoted verb to
influence your own choice of tense.
•
It is hard to keep to the literary present when
you have just quoted a passage containing
verbs in the past tense. The tendency is to
allow your own verbs to slip into the past.
Keep to the rule, however: use the present
tense for actions or states under immediate
discussion.
Quoted Text in Past Tense, cont.
Do Not:
D.H. Lawrence describes Cecelia as a “big dark-complexioned,
pug-faced young woman who very rarely spoke…” When she
did speak, however, her words were sharp enough to kill her
Aunt Pauline.
Do:
D.H. Lawrence describes Cecelia as a “big dark-complexioned,
pug-faced young woman who very rarely spoke…” When she
does speak, however, her words are sharp enough to kill her
Aunt Pauline.
Exceptions to the Rule
Exception One: When an event in a plot follows
certain developments or anticipates others that you
want to mention, use the literary present for the
action being discussed and the past or future (and
related tenses) for the earlier or later actions.
When Hamlet’s suspicions were confirmed by the ghost ,he
vowed revenge. By Act Two he fears that his self-doubts
have dulled his purpose. He engages a troupe of players
to reenact the murder and swears that the play will
“catch the conscience of the King…”
Notice that the writer has chosen a point of focus in Act
Two of the play.
Exceptions to the Rule, cont.
When referring to non-contemporary author’s
ideas without reference to a particular work,
use the past:
Plato believed that artists were a menace to the ideal
republic.
OR
Thoreau was convinced that people could find peace by
staying exactly where they were.
Effective writing
Remember, if the reader cannot
understand the writing, it is almost
always the writer’s fault.
Effective writing is fluid and easy to follow.
Avoiding passive voice can help this.
The most common times students use
passive voice is in sentences in which
they would normally use first or second
person. Be careful when you are trying
to reconstruct a sentence for this
reason.