avoid passive voice

I am really lousy at it, already gotten books, and am gonna get at it.

I improved my writing (college essays, stories, blog posts, etc) quite a bit when I learned how to find and kill passive sentences. Now my writing rocks. Or something. Either way, learn to write actively – you’ll be much more articulate and clear, and people will be able to read what you write without gagging.

It can be. For example, instead of saying “american troops shot at civilians and killed them” you can say “civilians were killed” or instead of saying “I just pinned your cat to a tree with your new Audi” you can say “The car has been crashed and cat has expired.” Passive voice can be a tool, but it can also be a refusal to take responsibility for one’s life. Maybe I should rename this goal. What I want to accomplish here is a move from a position where the world takes itself out on me. I want to be the subject in my sentances. I want verbs to express my actions. I want to regulate my problems to the position of indirect objects. I want adjectives to fist- fight over the rights to modify pronouns of whom I am the antecedent.

Don’t sell the passive voice short. It’s a wonderful tool.