This week we talked about business letters for when written communication is sent between you and someone else. The main point that stuck out to me was about using appropriate voice. We know about both active and passive voices so I won't spend time going through those, but rather I will try to answer my own question which is when is it appropriate to use passive voice in a persuasive letter?
I know that many times when trying to persuade someone we use the direct approach to writing which is to draw them in with facts about what you are trying to do or something and then putting an agenda in the letter so they know what is about to come at them. Active voice is used in persuasive letters in, what seems to be, a majority of situations.
I think that passive voice would be used if someone is trying to get someone else to do something that they don't really want to do or don't feel they need. In these cases passive voice could be used to draw the reader in and get them to feel good and then deliver the bad news of what you want them to do.
Knowing the differences about when to use which kind of voice is important because it will make your writing more effective. To overcome my problem of not knowing when to use passive voice I will go back to the book and try to find out because I know that it is something important and something that I should know.
I think that this a great point. I feel like the type of voice that you use in paper or letter makes a huge difference. I also get pretty confused and feel like this a grammar point I could use a little more work and study on.
ReplyDeleteIn all honesty, passive voice should hardly ever be used. Using passive voice makes a lot of confusion for the reader as to who is doing the action, and sentences are written without subjects. (You may have noticed I wrote this whole thing in passive voice. Check, mate.)
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