This document discusses active and passive voice and different types of grammar rules. It explains that active voice emphasizes the actor while passive voice emphasizes actions over who is performing them. There are three types of grammar rules: real rules that define the structure of English, social rules regarding standard written English conventions, and invented rules that are "school rules" which can sometimes be broken rhetorically. Errors are also discussed in terms of whether they noticeably reflect poorly on the writer or cause confusion for readers.

1. Actors, Actions, and Rules in Writing

2. CONCEPT 5: Clarify what needs to be
emphasized and use active or passive voice
accordingly.

3. ACTIVE VOICE:
• Emphasizes the actor.
• “Normal” or expected English syntax
helps reader easily grasp the main
idea.
• Simplified sentence structure tends
to reduce word count.

4. There is opposition
among many voters to
nuclear power plants
based on a belief of their
threat to human health.
Many voters oppose
nuclear power plants
because they believe
these plants threaten
human health.

5. BUT BEWARE THE FRANKENSTEIN EFFECT!
(active voice for inanimate objects)
Reasonable
The oscilloscope
displayed
the voltage.
The oscilloscope
measured
the voltage.
+
V
-
The oscilloscope
calculated
the voltage.
V=

6. PASSIVE VOICE:
• Emphasizes actions, not who’s doing them.
• Use when actor is unimportant or unknown,
or when the actor wishes not to be named.

7. •The solution was heated to 300 degrees
Fahrenheit.
•The victim was murdered at approximately 4 a.m.
last night.
•Three hundred washer/dryer combinations were
donated to Habitat for Humanity last week.

8. (example)

9. CONCEPT 6: Know what it means to be
“correct” on several levels.
There are 3 kinds of grammar rules:
1. Real rules
2. Social rules
3. Invented rules

10. REAL RULES
• These are the rules that define English as English.
• Speakers born into English do not think about these
rules and violate them only when they are not paying
attention (i.e. tired or distracted).

11. EXAMPLE: “Real” Rules
Mary and John swam in the lake.
Not: – on the lake or by the lake.
She enjoyed the book.
Not: She enjoyed book the.

12. SOCIAL RULES
• Social rules abide by the
conventions of Standard
Written English (the
“language of power”).
• None of us speak
standard English.
• Educated people,
however, write standard
English and observe
social rules when and
where appropriate.

13. EXAMPLE: Social Rules
• We saw the accident.
Not: We seen the accident.
• He has no money.
Not: He ain’t got no money.
NOTE: some dialects of English consistently use double
negatives etc. If a dialect is consistent in this type of usage, it is
not a violation of grammar but rather a variation in social rules –
appropriate in some contexts but not others.

14. INVENTED RULES
Invented rules are “school rules” - those rules that we think we should
observe. These can be broken.
• Never use “I” in
academic writing!
• Never end a sentence
with a preposition!
• Never start a sentence
with a conjunction!
• Never use the passive
voice!

15. Example of an Invented Rule
Never split an infinitive! (an infinitive is the “to form of
a verb”--- to run, to play, etc).

17. THINK RHETORICALLY ABOUT WHEN TO BREAK RULES
Errors that readers notice and these reflect poorly on writer:
• Run on sentences and fragments.
• Incorrect use of its/it’s and there/their/they’re
• Typos and Spelling Errors
Errors that cause confusion for readers:
• Missing comma for an introductory element.
• Ambiguous pronoun reference.
• Faulty parallelism
• Wrong stress emphasis
Errors that few readers notice:
• Different from vs. Different than
• Using a contraction
• Split infinitive