<p>i just learned today about the passive voice rule and how youre not supposed to use it in the writing section. are there any more hints, tips, or anything i should look for that could help me improve my cr ad writing score.</p>
<p>whats the passive voice rule?</p>
<p>i dont know if this is write but in the correct the sentence section my friend said if the sentence is in the passive voice it cant be right. i do not know if this is true or not thats why i was asking</p>
<p>I don't think that it's an absolute rule but I have noticed that the SAT makers tend to avoid answers written in the passive voice.</p>
<p>^ Not ALWAYS. </p>
<p>But if you have two choices, one in the active voice and one in the passive, choose the former.</p>
<p>For example, if the question is:
The author, taking the reader on a remarkable journey through her native land, skillfully combining factual information with fiction.</p>
<p>And the choices are:
A) The author, taking the reader on a remarkable journey through her native land, skillfully combining factual information with fiction.
B) The author taking the reader on a remarkable journey through her native land does so when skillfully combining factual information with fiction.
C) The reader, taken on a remarkable journey through the author's native land , by the author, is combining factual information with fiction.
D) The reader is taken on a remarkable journey by the author through her native land because the author is combining factual information with fiction.
E) The author takes the reader on a remarkable journey through her native land by combining factual information and fiction.</p>
<p>A, B, and C are obviously false.</p>
<p>D and E are both grammatically correct.
But pick E because it's more concise, and in the active voice.</p>
<p>I don't think passive voice should be a problem; I prefer using passive voice to using active voice in many circumstances, and it didn't have a detrimental effect on my essay grade. Also, on the March test, there were no MC questions that forced me to choose between two valid sentences with different voices.</p>
<p>Does D also have an ambiguous reference ... as in 'through her native land'... you don't know if it's the author or the reader?</p>
<p>I'm just wondering. :o</p>
<p>Either way, E is correct.</p>
<p>Both of them have an ambiguous reference, actually -- it's not a very good question and nothing like it will show up on the actual SAT.</p>
<p>^ This is a question from Barron's (yet again)... </p>
<p>Lol, I can't make up something like that.</p>
<p>^ isn't the "her" ambiguous?</p>