Venture capitalists Menlo Ventures have released what purports to be a survey: “2025: The State of Consumer AI”. That is, chatbots. [Menlo Ventures] The subtitle is: “AI’s Consumer Tipping Po…
This article is wild already, on the first page there’s this quote
‘Do not use the passive voice when such use makes a statement clumsy and wordy. . .
Do not, by using the passive voice, leave the agent of the verb vaguely indicated, when the agent should be clearly identified.’ [Edwin Woolley, Handbook of Composition, 1907, p. 20]
Emphasis mine on… a clear usage of the passive! In active this would have to be “when you should clearly identify the agent” or something of the like, the fuck, how hard is it to not expose your whole ass like this mate
This is doubly (triply? (N+1)ly?) ironic because this is a perfect example of when not only is it acceptable to use the passive voice, but using it makes the sentence flow more smoothly and read more clearly. The idea they’re communicating here should focus on the object (“the agent”) rather than the subject (“you”) because the presumed audience already knows everything about the subject.
This article is wild already, on the first page there’s this quote
Emphasis mine on… a clear usage of the passive! In active this would have to be “when you should clearly identify the agent” or something of the like, the fuck, how hard is it to not expose your whole ass like this mate
This is doubly (triply? (N+1)ly?) ironic because this is a perfect example of when not only is it acceptable to use the passive voice, but using it makes the sentence flow more smoothly and read more clearly. The idea they’re communicating here should focus on the object (“the agent”) rather than the subject (“you”) because the presumed audience already knows everything about the subject.