Politicians, the Passive Tense and Misunderstandings About Grammar

Many get passive tenses wrong. Writers have heard that the passive tense slows down the forward motion of their writing (which is true) and that it's very bad (which is only true sometimes--like when a writer prefers to move the story forward quickly or she wants to avoid unnecessary wordiness).

One hears questions like "How do I get this out of the passive tense? 'I was writing a story.' " It's true that words that end with an "ing" may indicate you have used the passive tense but that is not always true. In this case "I was writing" is in the past progressive tense. Not the passive tense. "I am walking" is in the present progressive tense. "I walked" is simple past tense.

"I was being blamed." Now THAT's a passive construction. You can tell because there is a sort of reflexive thing going on. To make it clearer, let's make the sentence "I was being blamed by my buddies." See how the action in this sentence kind of flows backward? To make it active, you'd need to turn the sentence around. "My buddies blamed me." Now you've got the action going from left to right and once that happens, you aren't in the passive any longer.

So does that mean people should give up on looking at the "ings" when they're editing?. Nope. Because "ings" can be indicators of other stuff you may not want in your copy. But then, so can all those extra verbs like "was," "were," "have." Most of us writers have a sense for when we can take words out. So watch for "ings" and some other indicators I mention in The Frugal Editor. Then examine them. Can you hone your copy to eliminate words you don't need without harming your meaning? Then do it. Or don't. It's your choice. Because passives aren't wrong. They serve a useful purpose. Politicians would be a sorry group without them. "Party regulars are being blamed for their lack of interest." See? They don't have to say who is doing the blaming when they use the passive tense.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits, consults and speaks on issues of publishing. Find her The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978515870. Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com. She blogs on all things publishing (not just editing!) at www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com.