Active vs Passive

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vinay1983: Legendary Member; Posts: 643; Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:27 amFollowed by: 7 members; Thanked: 48 times

by vinay1983 » Fri Sep 06, 2013 1:09 am

Hi forum,

Suppose we are stuck in a question and we are down to 2 options such as:

Case I

Option 1 Active voice, ambiguous and redundant
Option 2 Passive voice, clear and concise

Case II

Option 1 Active voice, grammatically correct with clear meaning
Option 2 Passive voice grammatically correct with clear meaning

Thanks!

You can, for example never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to!

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Fri Sep 06, 2013 1:09 am

vishnum: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 11; Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 8:02 am

by vishnum » Fri Sep 06, 2013 3:06 am

Hi,

I believe you should go with Option II in 1st question and Option I in the 2nd question. As there is no hard and fast rule that sentences should be in active voice only. If Passive voice is clearer then we should choose it.

Br,
Vishnu.

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GMAT/MBA Expert

[email protected]: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 10392; Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:38 pmFollowed by: 511 members; Location: Palo Alto, CA; Thanked: 2867 times; GMAT Score:800

by [email protected] » Fri Sep 06, 2013 3:34 pm

Hi vinay1983,

The correct answers to GMAT SCs tend to be written in the Active voice (because THAT's how you're supposed to write). There are some situations though in which the passive voice is considered acceptable, but you won't see them too often on the GMAT.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Contact Rich at [email protected]

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vinay1983: Legendary Member; Posts: 643; Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:27 amFollowed by: 7 members; Thanked: 48 times

by vinay1983 » Fri Sep 06, 2013 8:05 pm

vishnum wrote:Hi,

I believe you should go with Option II in 1st question and Option I in the 2nd question. As there is no hard and fast rule that sentences should be in active voice only. If Passive voice is clearer then we should choose it.

Br,
Vishnu.

@ vishnum
Precisely the reason why I mentioned this. No offence to you, but I wanted this clarified. This is usually the case in GMAT.

Thank you Rich!

You can, for example never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to!

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KapTeacherEli: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 578; Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:00 pmFollowed by: 62 members; Thanked: 136 times

by KapTeacherEli » Fri Sep 06, 2013 8:15 pm

Rich has it.

I do want to point out one common area where the GMAT will use passive voice: in correcting modification errors. Often times, a passive-voice sentence is the only way you've got to put the right noun near the right modifying phrase! You can read a little more in this blog here, which may help.

Best,

Eli Meyer
Kaplan GMAT Teacher
Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

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