![]() ![]() The last sentence illustrates a frequently criticized use of the passive, as the evasion of responsibility by failure to mention the agent (which may even be the speaker themselves). Mistakes have been made on this project (the speaker may not wish to identify the agent). ![]() A new cancer drug has been discovered (the identity of the agent may be unimportant in the context).Three stores were robbed last night (the identity of the agent may be unknown). ![]() The passive voice can be used without referring to the agent of an action it may therefore be used when the agent is unknown or unimportant, or the speaker does not wish to mention the agent. Although the speaker may be using words in a manner that diverts responsibility from him, this is not being accomplished by use of passive voice. The intransitive verbs would end and began are in fact ergative verbs in the active voice. In most of the rest of the statement, one not only heard the aggrieved passive voice, but felt the hand of a lawyer: "To the best of my recollection, my fraud began in the early nineteen-nineties." Two sentences later, Madoff said, "When I began the Ponzi scheme, I believed it would end shortly, and I would be able to extricate myself, and my clients, from the scheme." As he read this, he betrayed no sense of how absurd it was to use the passive voice in regard to his scheme, as if it were a spell of bad weather that had descended on him. An example of this incorrect usage can be found in the following extract from an article from The New Yorker about Bernard Madoff (bolding and italics added bold text indicates the verbs misidentified as passive voice): Occasionally, authors express recommendations about use of the passive unclearly or misapply the term "passive voice" to include sentences of this type. For instance, "There were mistakes" and "Mistakes occurred" are both in the active voice. Not every expression that serves to take focus away from the performer of an action is an instance of passive voice. Though the passive can be used for the purpose of concealing the agent, this is not a valid way of identifying the passive, and many other grammatical constructions can be used to accomplish this.
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