On the banning of the passive voice and HoB statements

I am thinking of banning the passive voice in all writing assignments for all my courses next semester. As it is I end up correcting verbs in the passive voice almost every time they occur, so I might as well ban them. My colleague Eric had the brilliant idea of banning "they" and other such pronouns in his classes this semester. He thus avoided writing the many, many notes I have had to write on student work saying "To what or to whom does this 'they' refer? Antecedent unclear." Of course many of the students don't know what an antecedent is. Sigh. For this I went to school for a dozen years to get a Ph.D. in theology and over $100,000 in debt?! I love my students, I really do, but I do not like correcting people's English. ****************************
(Yes, the students have taken English 102 by the time they get to my classes. No, I have no idea what high schools are teaching students these days. Or middle schools. Or elementary schools, for crying out loud. Some of my students write in perfectly grammatical sentences and others seem as if they haven't passed 7th-grade English. But 7th grade has changed, from what I gather.)

So what does this have to do with the Episcopal House of Bishops and its statements? (I also have many students who don't know the difference between its and it's, and why should they if even newspapers and department store signs are failing to make the proper distinction these days? Harrumph. Say amen, someone.)

Have a look at this statement, which responds to the Lambeth non-invitation, and see how it might have read if the House of Bishops had banned passive verb forms. With the active voice, you have to name who is responsible.

It's not a bad statement at first glance, and it doesn't contain many passive verbs. There are just one or two (depending how you count what qualifies as the passive voice.) The statement is mostly in the active voice, but take this, for example:

....hurt that is being experienced by so many in our own Episcopal Church...

Right. True. "Hurt that is being experienced." Yes. The focus is on the feelings of those who are in pain.

But hurt by whom and by what? Isn't there also the issue of who is causing the hurt to whom? (Yes, to whom. I am so peeved at The Nation for its current cover story headline "Who Would Jesus Vote For?" that I may just write them a grammatical rant. That's "whom," boys and girls. Not "who." You're not helping me in my job here. )

I understand that the bishops phrased their statement very carefully. I understand that they do not want to blame. I understand that people are hurting on the left, right, and center, and that we need to focus on the people first. The pain is what matters, and saying who hurt whom won't help. So this was a justifiable use of the passive voice.

Still...

I say we should screen all statements for the passive voice, or at least notice the syntax in statements and ask ourselves what it says or connotes.

This statement isn't an egregious case of bad syntax or style. It's not in total passive-voice bureaucratese. The commitments and observations are largely in the active voice.

And the HoB did 1) remind people that Bishop Robinson was duly elected by the Diocese of New Hampshire and 2) ask for the kind of forbearance, charity, and faith we all continue to need.

But I am a grammar nut (even though I do things like starting sentences with "but") and a style freak and I just had to comment.

Here endeth the partial rant.

Happy anniversary to my favorite couple

Mother and Father of Acts of Hope have been married 68 years today.

Snow, Greensboro, Valentine's Day Morning

Photo by Jane Redmont. Click to enlarge. Really. You want to see the detail.

Middle Name Meme

Okay, okay, okay. It was only a matter of time before this thing found its way to me, and that fine gourmet cook, JohnieB, has tagged me, so here we go.

Here are the rules:
1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don’t have a middle name, use your maiden name or your mother’s maiden name).
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person (or blogger of another species) for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they’ve been tagged.)

3. I'm not going to tag anyone, because I'm like Mimi and don't like to tag people. Though I might change my mind tomorrow.

1. Done. I like doing things out of order. Maybe that should be in the meme.

2. My middle name is Carol. After my maternal great-grandmother, Karoline, born in the German Rhineland in the 19th century, emigrated to New York, where she met and married great-grandpa Bela, the Hungarian with the handlebar mustache.

C is for Charismatic. That sounds like boasting, but I am a good public speaker and also I keep getting plunked in leadership positions. Of course that could just mean I am Crazy.

A is for Artsy. Nuff said.

R is for Ready for a Vacation. Now.

O is for Olive Oil. Gotta have some in my kitchen all the time.

L is for -- I was going to say Literary, but I'm not there yet (maybe in six years or so when I've finally written a novel), so let's say Literate. I love reading and words and writing. And Languages. Also Liturgy. And, um, I'm Long-winded.

No surprises. I'd better go on to my confirmation names. Which are Marie, for Herself (the French form of the name) and Catherine, for Siena, that uppity holy woman (okay, she was also highly neurotic, but no one ever said you had to be perfect to be a saint).

M is for Musical. I love to listen to listen to music, I love to sing, I love to dance, I even love to chant in church. I do not, however, know how to do the Mambo, but if someone wants to teach me, I'm game.

A is for Auntie Jane, which is what I am. To my nephews and to my elder nephew's children (well, Great-Aunt to those, but let's not push it with the elder-titles) but also to several other young adults and children. Soon to be more numerous because I have three colleagues at work who are pregnant.

R is for Really Ready for a Vacation.

I is for Independent. Fiercely so. Which is funny because I am also a very community-bound person. Go figure. So maybe Interdependent is the better word.

E is for Extroverted-but-much-less-than-I-used-to-be. Somewhere during Ph.D. studies, which also coincided with the advent of middle age, I moved almost to the border between Extrovert and Introvert on the Myers-Briggs scale. Which people don't believe, but it's true, I am no longer a wild extrovert. I really need that time alone.

and

C is for Creative. Probably goes with the "Independent" above, or vice versa.

A is for Adventurous, though definitely Not Athletic and sometimes Anxious. And Anglican, of course.

T is for Travelin' Jane, who loves to be a homebody but whose family and dear friends are scattered around the globe, so off she goes, now and again. Plus it's nice to get out of Town once in a while.

H is for Humorous Though Not Sarcastic. And Homebody. Also Hot Tubs, which California had lots of and North Carolina does not, boo hoo.

E is for Enthusiastic.

R is for Radical, I hope.

I is for Intellectual.

N is for Napping, though not right now.

E is for Entertaining, Episcopal, Elegant (or so we wish), Empathetic, Erudite, and occasionally Exasperating.

Snow, Greater Boston, December

Snow through the window. Photos by Jane Redmont. Click to enlarge.