Writing in the Active Voice
Prior Knowledge
Students should have some experience with self editing and/or peer editing, and in this activity students will be looking for the use of be verbs that are indicators of passive voice. Taking the experience learned with using COCA to locate and edit passive voice registers, students will be making edits to their own papers so that the sentence structure maintains the same meaning, while complimenting the sentence that follows. Along with this students will have already worked with AntConc and will know how to upload a document in text format so that they can complete the proper search. Using experience from previous lessons students should be able to navigate and locate words using AntConc, and be able to take specific lines from the text to make the appropriate edits.
Reading
Corsin T & Rebecca S. Passive Voice: When to Use It When to Avoid It. Retrieved November 23, from http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/style-and-editing/passive-voice
Evans R. (1972-73). The Effect of Transformational Simplification On The Reading Comprehension of Selected High School Students. Journal of Reading Behavior, 5(4), 273-281.
TLWBT
Materials
Activity Development
Since students have already began the editing process with this paper, students should be comfortable with uploading the text file of their paper into AntConc. To begin this activity students should upload the text document to AntConc and then be able to search for the registers of be verbs. The worksheet above is which students should use to complete this activity.
The worksheet explains what words students should be searching for in their paper: be, is, was, were been, being. As the students work through the worksheet, a search for each register should be conducted. As students search for these registers they should write down how many times it occurs throughout their paper and then write down the concordance line in which it occurs. By taking prior knowledge from the Editing for Passive Voice: Stylistic writing, students should then be able to edit each of the concordance lines, in which they have written down, from passive voice to active voice.
Upon completion of the activity, students should have upwards of 20 sentences in which they have edited, that should be transferable into their paper. This activity intends to take the editing process away from the paper itself and give students a local focus, as they are looking for specific words and lines to edit instead of trying to edit the paper as a whole. Upon completion of the worksheet, students should take what they have worked on and apply it to their paper, those that are highly effective at this skill should be able to re-upload their text document and begin the process again.
Reflective Notes:
This activity is intended for students to take the lessons learned in the previous activity and apply it to their paper. Using AntConc was a good choice because you can search for a word and then see where it occurs in the paper. You could use Microsoft Word for this type of searching, however each time you go to edit, you have to redo the search. Using AntConc allows the user to copy and paste text while keeping the search current.
The activity does allow for the practice of editing from passive to active voice from a localized perspective. The issue I found with this activity is the number of occurrences of the be verb in a students paper. The paper that was used had is occur 75 times, which shows that the writing takes on the passive voice. The problem is that there was no article that gave a number of how many times per 100 words a be verb can occur and still maintain the active voice. 75 times in such a short paper, shows that there is room for editing to the active voice, however there is no set number for students to try an achieve. With the Evans article as a starting off point, looking for solid number per 100 words may be a good research project, and would set a goal for students to achieve when doing this activity.
Students should have some experience with self editing and/or peer editing, and in this activity students will be looking for the use of be verbs that are indicators of passive voice. Taking the experience learned with using COCA to locate and edit passive voice registers, students will be making edits to their own papers so that the sentence structure maintains the same meaning, while complimenting the sentence that follows. Along with this students will have already worked with AntConc and will know how to upload a document in text format so that they can complete the proper search. Using experience from previous lessons students should be able to navigate and locate words using AntConc, and be able to take specific lines from the text to make the appropriate edits.
Reading
Corsin T & Rebecca S. Passive Voice: When to Use It When to Avoid It. Retrieved November 23, from http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/style-and-editing/passive-voice
Evans R. (1972-73). The Effect of Transformational Simplification On The Reading Comprehension of Selected High School Students. Journal of Reading Behavior, 5(4), 273-281.
TLWBT
- Take prior knowledge to editing for word use and apply it to editing a personal essay
- Edit paper to convey the same meaning while eliminating the use be verbs that are indicators of passive voice.
- Be able to deconstruct a sentence to eliminate be verbs that indicate passive voice.
- Understand that editing is a part of the writing process
- Have fun.
Materials
- Electronic copy of paper
- Use of individual computers
- AntConc v3.2
- Worksheet on Writing in the Active Voice
Activity Development
Since students have already began the editing process with this paper, students should be comfortable with uploading the text file of their paper into AntConc. To begin this activity students should upload the text document to AntConc and then be able to search for the registers of be verbs. The worksheet above is which students should use to complete this activity.
The worksheet explains what words students should be searching for in their paper: be, is, was, were been, being. As the students work through the worksheet, a search for each register should be conducted. As students search for these registers they should write down how many times it occurs throughout their paper and then write down the concordance line in which it occurs. By taking prior knowledge from the Editing for Passive Voice: Stylistic writing, students should then be able to edit each of the concordance lines, in which they have written down, from passive voice to active voice.
Upon completion of the activity, students should have upwards of 20 sentences in which they have edited, that should be transferable into their paper. This activity intends to take the editing process away from the paper itself and give students a local focus, as they are looking for specific words and lines to edit instead of trying to edit the paper as a whole. Upon completion of the worksheet, students should take what they have worked on and apply it to their paper, those that are highly effective at this skill should be able to re-upload their text document and begin the process again.
Reflective Notes:
This activity is intended for students to take the lessons learned in the previous activity and apply it to their paper. Using AntConc was a good choice because you can search for a word and then see where it occurs in the paper. You could use Microsoft Word for this type of searching, however each time you go to edit, you have to redo the search. Using AntConc allows the user to copy and paste text while keeping the search current.
The activity does allow for the practice of editing from passive to active voice from a localized perspective. The issue I found with this activity is the number of occurrences of the be verb in a students paper. The paper that was used had is occur 75 times, which shows that the writing takes on the passive voice. The problem is that there was no article that gave a number of how many times per 100 words a be verb can occur and still maintain the active voice. 75 times in such a short paper, shows that there is room for editing to the active voice, however there is no set number for students to try an achieve. With the Evans article as a starting off point, looking for solid number per 100 words may be a good research project, and would set a goal for students to achieve when doing this activity.