Re: [Phys-L] passive or active voice

["David Marx" <marx@phy.ilstu.edu>]

John, thanks for a better example than I gave.  I realized after I sent this
that my water temperature in the example was a bit too high.

What I do not want to see in my junior/senior level experimental physics lab
reports is something like, "The RMS voltage I measured was 1.23(5) V, but my
lab partner found it to be 1.19(4) V."

> On 09/11/2013 02:06 PM, Bill Nettles wrote:
> > When you have students write a report of an experimental activity, do
> > you expect them to write primarily in active voice, passive voice, or
> > do you let them choose?
>
> The only real requirement is clarity.
> De gustibus non disputandum.
>
> FWIW it hath been perceived by me that ye olde passive
> voice hath largely gone by ye wayside, along with ye
> electrical "condensers".
>
> On 09/11/2013 02:30 PM, marx@phy.ilstu.edu wrote:
>
> > > the focus should be on the
> > > experiment and not on the particular experimenters
>
> That may be, but that's mostly a separate question.  Very
> often, you can focus /directly/ on the experiment, with no
> need for active agency *or* passive agency:
>   "In the first set of measurements, the RMS
>    voltage was 1.23(45) volts."
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