I am writing a blog post, in which I intend to convince you of my case. A coherent argument must be created, in which the benefits of my view are enumerated. Paragraphs are introduced to separate the different parts of the argument.
The scene was set in the first sentence, so readers know that the actor in the following sentences must be me. Repeating that information would be redundant. Indeed, it was clearly me who set that scene, so no need to mention me at the start of this paragraph. An article in which each sentence is about the author, and not the article’s subject, could be perceived as a sign of arrogance. This perception is obviously performed by the reader of the article, so there is no need to explicitly call that out.
The important features of the remaining sentences in the first paragraph are those relating to the structure of the article. These structural elements are subjects upon which I act, so bringing them to the fore in my writing involves suppressing the object, the actor in the text. I can do this by choosing to use the passive voice.
Unfortunately, grammar checkers throughout the world of computing give the impression that the passive voice is always bad. Millions of people are shown underlining, highlighting, and inline tips explaining that their writing is wrong. Programmers have leaked the abstraction that everything in their world is either 1 or 0, into a world where that does not make sense. Sentences are either marked active (1), correct (1), or passive (0), incorrect (0).
Let us apply that to other fields of creative endeavor. Vincent: a starry night is not that brightly colored. 0. You used too much paint on the canvas. 0. Stars are not that big. 0.
Emily: too many hyphens. 0. No need to capitalize “microscope”. 0. Sentence fragment. 0.
