Talk:Mistakes were made/Archives/2015

Active/passive
Hello, I have just made an edit in the first paragraph. I removed the misleading claims that the passive voice is the operative factor.

Using the passive voice does not necessarily mean a statement is evasive, abstract, shifting the blame, and so on. Similarly, using the active voice does not mean a statement will be fair or straightforward. As a counter-example, the sentences "Mistakes occurred", "Some people made mistakes", "Mistakes were inevitable" are all active voice, but still avoid naming who's to blame.

I feel that paragraph also has other problems, but that's for another day. --84.130.17.15 (talk) 16:21, 14 May 2014 (UTC)


 * I really don't understand how some people got it in their heads that it was a good idea to prohibit an entire voice of the English language. People have been running unjustified hit jobs against the passive voice for decades.108.131.127.169 (talk) 04:09, 18 October 2015 (UTC)