![]() Securities and Exchange Commission, Plain English Handbook, 1998, Washington, DC, pp. Redish, Janice C., How to Write Regulations and Other Legal Documents in Clear English, 1991, American Institutes for Research, Washington, DC, p. Office of the Federal Register, Document Drafting Handbook, 1998, p. ![]() Murawski, Thomas A., Writing Readable Regulations, 1999, Carolina Academic Press Durham, NC, pp. Garner, Bryan A., Garner's Modern American Usage, 2003, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, pp. Garner, Bryan A., Legal Writing in Plain English, 2001, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. Garner, Bryan A., A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, 2nd edition, 1995, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, pp. and Charrow, Robert P., Clear & Effective Legal Writing, 4th edition, 2007, Aspen Publishers, New York, NY, pp. “If you do not pay the royalty on your mineral production, your lease will be terminated.” SourcesĬharrow, Veda R., Erhardt, Myra K. You might also use passive when it doesn’t matter who is doing an action. For example, when one action follows another as a matter of law, and there is no actor (besides the law itself) for the second action, a passive sentence may be the best method of expression. In a few instances, passive voice may be appropriate. Use passive voice when the law is the actor A past participle (generally with “-ed” on the end).A form of the verb “to be,” such as “are,” “was,” “were,” “could be,” or “have been”).Passive sentences have two basic features, although both may not appear in every passive sentence. More than any other writing technique, using active voice and specifying who is performing an action will change the character of your writing. Our state office must approve your permit. The permit must be approved by the agency’s state office. We will withhold your bond if you don’t comply with all permit terms and conditions. You must include the following information in your application.īonds will be withheld in cases of non-compliance with all permits and conditions. The following information must be included in the application for it to be considered complete. If you don’t have a proper understanding of. MS Word will even underline the sentence in squiggly red (the scary color editors use to invoke fear in a writer). Passive sentences often do not identify who is performing the action. If you’ve used Grammarly or Microsoft Word to edit your documents, you’ve probably been chastised on multiple occasions to use less passive voice. In a passive sentence, the person or item that is acted upon is the subject of the sentence. The meaning of the sentence is the same: Jack is doing some killing. When you use the passive voice, it means that you reverse the subject and the object from the active form. ![]() ![]() In an active sentence, the person or agency that’s acting is the subject of the sentence. When you write in active voice, it means that youre using a standard subject verb object sentence. Don’t confuse passive voice with past tense. Not “It must be done,” but “You must do it.” Passive voice obscures who is responsible for what and is one of the biggest problems with government writing. It eliminates ambiguity about responsibilities. > Keep it conversational Use active voiceĪctive voice makes it clear who is supposed to do what. Tips for starting a plain language program. ![]()
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