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Active vs Passive

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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!
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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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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.

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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!
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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.

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Eli Meyer
Kaplan GMAT Teacher
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www.kaptest.com/gmat

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