Quote:
Originally Posted by LuvReadin
Fully agree with you. This dislike of the passive voice is a very recent phenomenon, and IMO, reflects the general dumbing-down of education.
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I blame the Modern Languages Association, which publishes the style guide used by a significant number of journals within the humanities and requires writers to emphasize the role of the agent. These guidelines are also used in nearly all of the writing reference guides used in college composition courses. Through both the instructor's continuous exposure to MLA publishing standards during graduate school as well as the reappearance of these same guidelines in teaching materials, we have developed the mistaken notion that there are no other options. In fact, it wasn't until I was in grad school attending my first classes in TESL that I learned about the American Psychological Association (APA) style guide, which
does permit passive voice and which places the most emphasis on the chronology of research and scientific discovery--and NOT the researcher.