Writing
Why we use plain English
This absolutely ancient (from 2015) blog post by Ben Clancy, then at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), stands up rather nicely. Sometimes, it really is important to remind people why you use plain English. It can be helpful for your audience, sure. But also colleagues and teams that you work with from day to day.
What’s the difference between ACTIVE & PASSIVE?
What are the active and passive voices in English? We use the active voice in a sentence when the subject performs a verb. For example: “Jim wrote a letter”. We use the passive voice when the subject is acted on by the verb. For example: “The letter was delivered by the postman”. Now, when should you use which voice? That is the question! In this English grammar lesson, I will teach you about using the active and passive voices. I will explain in more detail the difference between the two and give you lots of examples to solidify your understanding. I will also show you how to change a sentence from active to passive, or passive to active. You will learn some reasons why you might choose one or the other. This will help you in everyday speaking, as well as in writing, making your English more varied and interesting.
What are the active and passive voices in English? We use the active voice in a sentence when the subject performs a verb. For example: “Jim wrote a letter”. We use the passive voice when the subject is acted on by the verb. For example: “The letter was delivered by the postman”. Now, when should you use which voice? That is the question! In this English grammar lesson, I will teach you about using the active and passive voices. I will explain in more detail the difference between the two and give you lots of examples to solidify your understanding. I will also show you how to change a sentence from active to passive, or passive to active. You will learn some reasons why you might choose one or the other. This will help you in everyday speaking, as well as in writing, making your English more varied and interesting. Don’t forget to do the quiz after watching! https://www.engvid.com/learn-english-...What are the active and passive voices in English? We use the active voice in a sentence when the subject performs a verb. For example: “Jim wrote a letter”. We use the passive voice when the subject is acted on by the verb. For example: “The letter was delivered by the postman”. Now, when should you use which voice? That is the questi …...more...more
Quick and useful explanation of the active voice
Here is a smashing and very short post on LinkedIn by Hannah Collins, content design lead at Today. Some people find it tricky to spot the difference between the active and passive voice, so I am very much into this kind of concise overview.
UX writing: making our microcopy clear, concise and useful
Miles Taylor, now at Torchbox, wrote this while at University of Bristol. It comes from having pulled a load of information together to try and explain the benefits of UX writing and clear content to internal project teams. This is a job that often seems to fall to us content folk. Plain language? Explain yourself!
Writing about actions and their effects
First of all, you should read Adobe's guidelines on inclusive language. And then in the page on writing with visuals, you'll find a short table that shows some examples of how to write actions. Things like, 'Enter email' instead of 'Type email address', as the user may not be typing if they are using a screen reader.
The Ultimate Guide to Grammar
Grammarly is a useful tool that checks your writing for bad spells and stuff. But the company blog is also a content treasure trove of handy information, including this giant guide to pretty much every word-related term or phrase you can think of. Punctuation. Syntax. It's got the lot.
How to use the active or passive voice - BBC Bitesize
Guess what my 11-year-old twins are doing for their homework this week? They had to go through this ace web page all about the active and passive voice. It includes examples, videos and quizzes. I very much of approve of clear language in schools, though it would be great to see more about how it benefits people.