Dear Tamer,

The perspective on scientific writing discussed so far has a focus on form, the passive as a grammatical device. It can sometimes be more helpful to focus on performance, i.e. what the grammatical device enables us to do. Instead of thinking of the passive as a device to remove the agent, I find it more helpful to think of it as a topicalising device (cf Systemic Functional Linguistic theory) to bring the topic into subject position.

If we see a sentence as a topic (usually the grammatical subject in a simple sentence) and a comment (the verb phrase), then the passive is one grammatical device for moving an object into topic position where it contributes to the cohesion and logical development of ideas. In scientific writing we are interested in phenomena in the natural world and how they change and develop. Aspects of these phenomena form the subjects of the sentences which are steps in a process for example. Putting them in subject position to clearly organise the ideas requires us to use the passive voice.

So subject – what we want to talk about – comes first and verb phrase – what we want to say about it and the form we use to say it –  is dependent on our choice of subject.

Best wishes

Olwyn

Dear Tamer:

Except for grammatical 'rules', all 'rules' of good writing, including scientific writing, must be adapted to their relevant social and generic contexts  (Lewin, 2010).  In my opinion, we cannot say 'never / always use passive voice in science'. But one must always consult the style manual for a particular journal. For instance, the Manual of the American Psychological Association (2001:41) prescribes, as a general rule 'Use the active rather than the passive voice […].'  Obviously, we must apply that judiciously.  If we are describing the procedure for an experiment, it is clear that the authors (or their assistants) did the mundane work and there is no need to repeat the agent:  We did this, we did that. But when the research involves human participants, we must be more sensitive. The APA Manual cautions us that using passive voice confers upon the participant the status of a passive actor in the experiment, e.g., 'The students completed the survey' is preferable to 'the students were given the survey'  (p. 65).  Secondly, we should not use the passive to avoid responsibility for opinions as in It is believed that …..  (unless the source is cited).  I hope this helps you in your deliberations.

Beverly A. Lewin

American Psychological Association (2001) . Publication Manual.(5^th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

For a fuller explanation of this and other problematic issues, see:

Lewin, Beverly A. (2010).  Writing Readable Research: A Guide for Students of Social Science.  London: Equinox.

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