"As a thought experiment, let’s examine in extremely close detail a set of iterative changes that can be made to a single simple grammatical structure, turning it from a statement taken at face value into one loaded with unrealized implication. This makes for rich writing which rewards – or even demands – close scrutiny."
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-interactive-guide-to-ambiguous-grammar
Take a few minutes and experience this post, all the way through. It's short and experiential. You might be able to guess where it's going (especially given that I posted it here).
Done?
I think I first encountered this idea when I was reading about the phrase "battered women", and how it removes the actor while also defining these women as being in a permanent state of battered-ness. And since then I have kept on noticing the use of passive tense in our society, to erase the fullness of what is happening and who is involved (for example, "the underserved"). And I think I'm going to spend more time challenging myself to stay in the active voice.
In this illustration, the actors have to talk about themselves, but want to erase the action and to maintain the invisibility and vagueness of the acted-upon object. It makes me think more about, and appreciate more, how important it has been to know the names of the people killed by the police (I had to re-write that twice because I kept putting it in passive, wow...) and shine a light on all the things hidden by the construction of these passive sentences.
(Credit to JZ)
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