Friday, September 26, 2008

Week 5.3 Features of the Language

Chapter 15 talks about features of language. The authors present very interesting things about this. One thing that was really interesting was the use the use of "Active versus Passive Voice". This raised more questions for me and i tried to do some reading on which is better to use. I was not able to come to any conclusion except that it depends on the situation in which the message is being composed for and the audience. But still what is the correct way might depend on the perspective of the readers. I think we can use sentences like "It has been decided" but we definitely should make sure that the message includes some details on how some one can express their concerns or questions they might have.

1 comment:

Janet S. said...

In communication studies, we are taught to always use active voice because it clearly identifies the subject with a verb. Notice the difference in these messages:

PASSIVE
This job may not be a good fit for you.

ACTIVE
I am unsatisfied with your work.

Active voice assigns responsibility to action. When corporations use the passive voice, they often want to disassociate blame or mitigate the issue. I believe it is always best to be direct, but sensitive when delivering a message to reduce misunderstandings.