Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE IN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE

145

Passive voice is common in academic discourse since it is often felt necessary to

shift the focus from human agency to the actions, processes and events being

described. In academic writing in particular, foregrounding the writer/researcher

in such processes is often felt to be inappropriate (

Û

also 148

):

A total of 14 case studies 

were recorded. The data were analysed using

principles of conversation analysis and thematic analysis set within a

hermeneutic interpretative framework. In order to illuminate presentations of

autonomy in practice, focus-group discussions with nurses and older people

were used as part of the interpretative process. I discuss the factors that

prevented the operationalisation of an individualised rights-based concept of

autonomy for older people. 

Note how the research process is described in the passive voice (were recorded,

were analysed

, were used), while the author changes to active voice (I discuss)

when signposting the section dealing with personal stance and evaluation of the

research.

Passive voice (along with the present tense, 

Û

144b

) is particularly prevalent in

abstracts to academic papers and articles:

The urban hierarchy of an English region in the period 1300–1540

is defined,

using both documentary and archaeological evidence. The part of the East

Midlands studied – Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland – contained

twenty towns. ‘Benchmarks’ for placing towns in the hierarchy 

are explored,

including population, topography, social structure, occupational diversity,

marketing and migratory networks, administration, and civic and material

culture. The conclusion 

emphasizes the common urban characteristics of all of

the towns studied, the compatibility of written and unwritten evidence, and the

stability of the urban system.

Note here that active voice (emphasizes) occurs with the impersonal subject the

conclusion

(compare the alternative constructions which would foreground the

researcher: I conclude/I emphasize in the conclusion).

However, personal subjects and active voice verbs do occur frequently in

academic discourse, particularly where a researcher is laying claim to a different

or new approach to something, or contrasting their approach with that of others:

The acquisition of the English past tense inflection is the paradigm example of

rule learning in the child language literature and has become something of a

test case for theories of language development. This is unfortunate, as the

idiosyncratic properties of the English system of marking tense make it a rather

unrepresentative example of morphological development. In this paper,

I

contrast this familiar inflection with a much more complex morphological

subsystem, the Polish genitive.