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Re: Active voice / passive voice studies

Subject: Re: Active voice / passive voice studies
From: Jan Henning <henning -at- r-l -dot- de>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2003 16:11:40 +0200


---> Well, this can be rephrased as "The application verifies it against the set of plausibilty rules, after you enter the data."

But this is different - you introduce an acting person and the reader - as I tried to explain - could think that data is not verified when somebody else (than the person mentioned) enters it.

"Thus, there is no benefit in mentioning the actor (who has entered the data), and doing so can in fact lead to confusion because the reader might assume that the verification of the data is tied to the entering person (when it is not)."

--> Well thats the reason why almost everybody use "You" in active voice instead of saying the "user", "administrator", "Mr.X" or "Miss. Y" ;).

Yes, but there are systems with many different potential actors. Think about large ERP systems with all kinds of different roles. The "you" addressed in the manual may be the system administrator who does not enter, e.g., order data him- or herself.

Regards
Jan Henning

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Re: Re: Active voice / passive voice studies: From: Saravanan

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