From the course: Advanced Grammar (2017)
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Components of a sentence
- [Narrator] Yes, the sentence structure can add variety, can emphasize and deemphasize certain ideas, and can connect the ideas so that your writing flows. But now, let's look at other sentence structure possibilities to consider. Do you want your sentence to have a passive or active structure? Most grammar checkers will flag passive structure, but not all passive's bad. My Business Writing Fundamentals and Business Writing Strategies courses have an in depth discussion. But the short answer for whether you should use active or passive is it depends. Active, when the subject is acting, is stronger. Passive, when the subject receives the action, is considered a weaker structure. But look at these two sentences. First, the passive. Cell phone use is permitted only in Corridors A and C. Or, active. You can't use your cell phone any place except A and C. I don't know about you, but if the first warning I received, especially if I didn't know the rule, was the active structure, I might be…
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