A Professor's Words of Wisdom

Dr. John Zubizarreta
Professor of English
Director of the Honors Program

No one appreciates, trusts, or even likes a passive, lazy cardiac surgeon, bridge engineer, airline pilot, or teacher. The same goes for a writer. And there's hardly a clearer sign of laziness in writing than the vague, passive expletive as a substitute for specific subjects and active predicates. How many times have you read lifeless, passive prose with sentence after sentence sounding like this:

"It is imperative that students submit forms by Friday."
"It is understood by good teachers that students learn differently."
"There are many reasons why the main character is suffering."

The passive expletive "It is" and its various forms ("there is," "there are," "it becomes," "it appears," and such) offer an unclear pronoun as subject--what, after all, is "it" in the sentences above?--and a weak verb as predicate. Such expletives are worst when they occur at the beginning of a sentence or main clause because they leave us with essentially empty subjects and predicates instead of clear, concrete noun and active verb combinations. Consider the following revisions:

"Students must submit forms by Friday."
"Good teachers understand that students learn differently."
"The main character suffers for many reasons."

See the difference? I suggest to my students that they use the "search-n-destroy" tool in their word processing programs to find and revise all instances of expletive constructions in their work. In almost every case, a simple deletion with minimal adjustment does the trick.

Remember that passive expletives in writing are signs of lazy craft! If your surgeon, engineer, pilot, or teacher took short cuts in ingenuity and skill, you'd run the other way in disappointment, suspicion, and alarm. That's the way I react to passive expletives on the page! Give me a writer with imagination and craft, with vivid and active sentences, and I'm a happy reader!

For help identifying the passive voice and making it active, go to www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/112404.htm.