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Grammatically Correct: The writer's essential guide to punctuation ...

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STYLE<br />

Obviously you cannot use this strategy if your text is not speaking<br />

directly <strong>to</strong> the reader.<br />

USING THE PASSIVE VOICE<br />

Consider using the passive voice in order <strong>to</strong> avoid pronouns al<strong>to</strong>gether.<br />

You want <strong>to</strong> be cautious with this strategy-the passive voice<br />

carries the risk of making sentences clumsy or ambiguous-but it<br />

can sometimes work well.<br />

INSTEAD OF: <strong>The</strong> advantage <strong>to</strong> making the surgeon responsible for<br />

acquiring the research data is that he often requires it in any case for<br />

clinical purposes.<br />

WORD IT AS: <strong>The</strong> advantage <strong>to</strong> making the surgeon responsible for<br />

acquiring the research data is that this information is often required in<br />

any case for clinical purposes.<br />

For more on this, see "Active Versus Passive Voice" on page 286.<br />

A VOIDING PRONOUNS<br />

It is often possible <strong>to</strong> find a way of wording a sentence that eliminates<br />

the need for a pronoun, while staying in the active voice. This is<br />

often the neatest and least jarring solution. Consider the following<br />

examples:<br />

INSTEAD OF: A psychiatrist may ethically obtain research data from his<br />

patients, but his main objective must remain that of attending <strong>to</strong> their<br />

needs.<br />

WORD IT AS: A psychiatrist may ethically obtain research data from<br />

patients, but must not lose sight of the main objective of attending <strong>to</strong><br />

their needs.<br />

INSTEAD OF: <strong>The</strong> bashful writer is reluctant <strong>to</strong> come right out and state<br />

his position firmly.<br />

WORD IT AS: <strong>The</strong> bashful writer is reluctant <strong>to</strong> come right out and take<br />

a firm position.<br />

Sometimes it may be difficult <strong>to</strong> capture exactly the meaning you<br />

want without using a pronoun. Naturally, your meaning must take<br />

precedence over style.<br />

301

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