active vs. passive (was: "via" - why often verboten ?)
Active voice is when the subject performs the action denoted by the verb.If the view is being shared, then, as I understand it, the action is
sharing and the subject is a view. So, your example would be active voice.
? How is "view" the subject? It's the object: the thing being shared.
I'm not a grammarian. I'm an engineer-turned-tech-writer, and my "formal" grammar skills don't exist. I was raised by an English major, and was derided as a child by other kids for "talking proper". I was a big reader. So although I can seldom explain what grammar point makes something correct, I believe that 95% of the time, I know what "sounds right." This is why I've largely stayed out of this passive/active voice and the minutiae of fine grammar points.
In this seemingly simple case, the phrase I used, "Share a Custom View via URL" was intended as a heading, not a complete sentence. But if it were a sentence, the subject would be (an implied) "you". The verb is "sharing", the object that's being shared (now that's a passive phrase!) is "the view". I don't know what part of speech the "via URL" would be, but am fairly certain it's not germane to determining whether the phrase/sentence is passive or active.
In this case, one can share the view in two ways while accessing the web app "via" :-) the browser: pinning the view or copying the URL. So I don't want to omit the "via URL" part of the heading. There is no parallel section for sharing by pinning because that's covered in a preceding, more general description of using related parts of the feature.
Maybe this will set everyone's mind at ease for the weekend?
-Monique
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Follow-Ups:
- Re: active vs. passive (was: "via" - why often verboten ?), Robert Lauriston
References:
"via" - why often verboten ?: From: Monique Semp
Re: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: Robin Whitmore
Re: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: sharipunyon
RE: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: Wright, Lynne
Re: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: sharipunyon
RE: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: Wright, Lynne
Re: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: Lauren
Re: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: Gene Kim-Eng
Re: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: Lauren
Re: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: Robert Lauriston
Re: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: Gene Kim-Eng
Re: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: Robert Lauriston
Re: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: Lauren
Re: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: Robert Lauriston
Re: "via" - why often verboten ?: From: Lauren
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