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RHETORICAL SKILLSPersonSingular1youhe, she, itPluralweyoutheyFUTURE PERFECT TENSEHelping Verbshall havewill havewill haveshall havewill havewill havePast ParticipleTake the time to use proper verb forms in all your writing.10. THOUGHTLESS USE OF THE PASSIVEVOICEAction verbs have two voices, the active voice and thepassive voice. Through the use of voices, verbs that takeobjects (transitive verbs) can show whether their subjectsarc acting or acted upon. In the active voice, the subjectdoes the action:Harvey started the engine.The professor coordinated the writing program.Elizabeth earned a degree in health sciences.In the passive voice, the subject receives the action:The writing fesf is taken by 3500 students everyyear.The engine is started many times a day.The term paper was written by Norma Garza.To form the passive voice, the writer employs the verb tobe as a helping verb, adding it to the past participle of themain verb.PASSIVE CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO GIVE,3RD-PERSON SINGULARHelping Verb Past ParticipleTo Be of Main VerbPresent Tense:he isgivenPast Tense:he wasgivenFuture Tense:he will be givenPresent Perfect Tense: he has been givenPast Perfect Tense: he had been givenFuture Perfect Tense; he will have been givenTo change a verb from the passive to the active voice, weconvert the verb's subject into an object and replace itwith a new one:PASSIVE:Phit was given a plaque by the senior class.ACTIVE:The senior class gave Phil a plaque.PASSIVE:The ruling about the deductibility of loan costs waschangeaby the IRS.ACTIVE:The IRS changed the ruling about the deductibilityof loan costs.Notice how the passive voice sentences seem to lackpunch, and how they are wordier than the active versions.Because the passive leaves out or de-emphasizesthe actor (the performer of the verb's action), it is oftenambiguous or confusing.WEAK PASSIVE:The writing test was felt by the students to bedifficult because they were not given adequatetime to rewrite and proofread their work.STRONG ACTIVE:The students thought the writing test difficultbecause it gave them inadequate time to rewriteand proofread their work.The passive voice is appropriate in two contexts: whenthe receiver of the action is more important than thedoer, and when the doer is unknown.The vice-president was murdered this afternoon.(The murderer is presumably unknown, and the vicepresident'sdeath is the important point.)On the first trial, ethyl alcohol was added to thegasoline.(The person who added the alcohol is incidental to thefact that it was added. The passive voice is used frequentlyin scientific writing.)Prefer the active voice to the passive voice, except whenthe doer of the action is unknown or unimportant.11. INEFFECTIVE COORDINATION AND SUB­ORDINATIONEstablishing understandable and coherent relationshipsbetween ideas is the main function of subordination andcoordination.To subordinate is to "move to a lower structural rank."The italicized passages in the following sentence are subordinated.When the oxygen gas in the bloodstream drops tothe .06 level, the surgeon must decide whether ornot to go in again, the risks of open-heart surgeryvying in his mind with the risks of heart failure.Although the ideas carried in the grammatically subordinatestructures are very important, subordinating thememphasizes the main clause and establishes their relationshipto the ideas carried in the main clause. The sentencehas one point, and that one point is given weightand importance by the subordinated ideas. One of themarks of a seasoned writer is the ability to subordinateskillfully.To coordinate is to "make equal in structural rank." Theitalicized passages in the following sentence are coordinated.The precious oil we burn is finite, but frees andtheir derivatives alcohol and methane are selfrenewing.53