Is passive voice really that bad?

>>8298413
Tell us your thoughts on the 'issue'

Or fuck off back to
>>>/r9k/

it's not bad at all

dont listen to high school composition memes

>>8298413
The celebration?

>>8298413
I write art criticism, and I'm constantly falling into passive voice. My editor has called me on it a couple times, but I tend to gravitate towards it. I'm still not sure why it's bad, or even what it is.

>>8298602

>The boy was punished by his father.

Passive voice, as the subject (the boy) is not the actor, but the "acted upon".

>The father punished the boy.

Active voice, because the subject (the father) is the actor, and not the "acted upon".

>>8298616
My problem is that I'm often talking about artworks, not people.

So often its a sentance like "The paint is spread across the canvas like jam" or "the boards are stacked around the dildo" or w/e

>>8298413

No, it's just kind of clunky and annoying if you over-do it. Active voice tends to be more forceful and less wordy.

>>8298632

I don't know why your editor calls you on it, but IF you want to make it active, you would also have to specify who does 'it'.

The good thing about passive voice, is that you can tell something without having to know or specify who did it.

>"A man was killed at 12:30 PM this afternoon"

This might be something a news station would report, and since they don't know who did it, passive voice is the most fitting way of telling it, because you don't have to specify who dunnit in passive, but you do in active.

So if you want to make these active, you would have to introduce the person who made the art, so you would write something like "Artist X spreads the paint across the canvas like jam" or "Artist X stacked the boards around the dildo".

But I really don't know why your editor is after you, because I find passive voice most appropriate for academic and journalistic purposes.

>>8298644
Yeah, she hasn't brought it up in a long time. Frankly some of her edits changing passive into active sounded really fucked up.

also, she's kind of a moron, so w/e. Half of the time she has no edits and just responds "WOW. BEST THING YOU'VE EVER WRITTEN. AMAZING."

I'd take it as sarcasm except I think she's told to know that all caps means sarcasm.

in good writing, there is always push/pull relationship between sentences using passive and active voice. there are times to use passive voice and times to use active voice. i wouldn't get too caught up in it unless more than 20% of your sentences use passive voice

>>8298632
> The paint spreads across the canvas like jam
> The boards stack around the dildo
Are now active voice.

>>8298632
>is
>are
yeah no, don't do this. e-prime or bust senpai

>>8298756
this is practically the way that French renders passive voice, and it sounds way better tbqh

The passive voice can sound flabby, feeble and weak. It is mostly criticised in business writing because it lessens the impact of what you are trying to say. It shouldn't matter much it other types of writing.