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Technical Writing Clinic: Writing Using Active vs. Passive Voice

The debate over the use of active or passive voice (the relationship of the subject to the action of the verb) has been raging for years. While there is room for both active and passive voice in today’s writing, I recommend using active voice in technical writing.

If you’ve never had to worry about active and passive voice, think of it this way: if you write a sentence and the verb is in the active voice, then your subject acts; if the sentence is written in the passive voice, your subject is acted upon.

Consider these two sentences:

Trevor bought the soda. (active)

The soda was bought by Trevor. (passive)

In the first sentence, the reader quickly learns that Trevor (the subject) bought a soda (the object). In the second sentence, the first thing you learn is that there is a soda. What about it? Nothing special, except someone bought it. And oh yeah, it was Trevor. As far as I’m concerned, passive writing takes too many words to get to the point. Remember that your goal as a technical writer is to get to the point quickly and efficiently.

Here’s another example:

Tim killed the story. (active)

The story was killed by Tim. (passive)

In the first sentence the subject, Tom, is emphasized. In the second sentence the focus is on the object, the story. The active sentence is far more powerful.

If you write using the passive voice, your sentences can become difficult to understand. Here’s an example:

The DUPLICATE command should be selected. (passive)

Select the DUPLICATE command. (active)

In the first example, learners may get confused. Should the DUPLICATE command already be selected, or are they supposed to select it. In the second example, there is no confusion. You want them to select the DUPLICATE command. Period.

Learn more about Technical Writing, Instructional Design and Grammar in my "Essentials of Techncial Writing" and "Abrams’ Guide To Grammar" books. Visit IconLogic for more information.

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Building a Successful e-Learning Program

The design, creation and implementation of corporate training solutions, especially those that are highly reliant on technology, are very complex projects with many aspects to consider. The objective of this module is to provide guidance related to the planning of e-learning solutions as well as to present a survey of the many instructional and technological building blocks that should be considered as part of your solution. Skillfully blending these elements together will ultimately give you the most effective training and the best results.

Successful corporate training solutions can vary; however, they all have some common elements that make them successful. The most important components of success are:

  • A sound plan with a well defined mission and objectives.
  • Appropriate technological infrastructure and implementation strategy.
  • Good course design that contains well-written and engaging content.
  • A good plan is the starting point. Like any corporate initiative, the training program should have a stated mission and a set of business objectives that are well defined. The plan will also need to include a business analysis that identifies the costs and benefits of the training program. This will help bring the project into focus and provide solid grounding on which your many decisions will be based.
  • Once the big picture is in focus, it is time to create the implementation strategy and plan. This will start with a thorough assessment of many aspects including such considerations as specific training needs, current and planned technology, corporate culture and trainee demographics. Your complete implementation plan will include a proposed curriculum and a description of training methods along with a delivery infrastructure.

Ultimately, a good plan and implementation strategy is meaningless if the courses and training content are not properly designed or are ineffective. A sound design process begins with a thorough analysis of the training needs and a determination of the learning objectives. The next step is to design the instruction necessary to accomplish the teaching objectives and create an assessment structure to assure that the objectives have been met.

It is also important to realize that despite a thorough analysis and well-formulated learning objectives, the quality of the instructional content is still critical. The instructional content must be relevant to the student and presented in a way that is engaging and memorable. The use of interactive multimedia, if well done, can make the instruction much more interesting and effective.

Learn more about eLearning and Macromedia Captivate in our "Essentials of Captivate" book. Visit IconLogic for more information.

Special thanks to E.G. Gipple at ICS Multimedia for his contributions to this article.