After our discussion about Passive Voice, we looked at common contexts in English that take Passive:
- In science experiments the agent (the grad student or the professor) is not as important as what was discovered.
- The lab assistant obtained DNA from the remains. The lab assistant is not important.
- DNA cells were obtained from the remains. (by the lab assistant = can be left out)
- We don’t really know who or what the agent is.
- All questions will be answered within 24 hours. We don’t know who will answer them – maybe a group of employees of the corporation.
- We want to avoid responsibility.
- Mr Dupont and I will lay off 100 workers. ->
- One hundred workers will be laid off. This is more impersonal and makes it seem that no one is responsible.
As an example from the news, I gave the students this news article from many (many) years ago. I also gave them these exercises to help them see that the passive voice is often used to shift the focus from the agent to an impersonal source.
It’s easy to see from the article that not much information was available and no one wanted to say anything. Nothing was sure. However, the papers needed news so the reporters wrote this article.
The press was a really interesting topic for my students and I think the lessons with this chapter were very successful.
Tags: esl, esol, media, news, northstar, passive voice, teaching, tefl, tesl, tesol