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- Use verb forms that facilitate movement from old information to new
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Readers expect the information at the beginning of a sentence to provide a familiar context after which new information will be presented. They feel confused when a sentence begins with information that is new or unexpected. In the fragment below, the subject of the second sentence gives new information before the more familiar information already presented in the previous sentence.
The sentence above would be easier to read if the active verb determine were passive because the information that refers back to the previous sentence (the decision), which also has the advantage of being short, would be in initial position.
Again, if we followed the advice given by some journals and style guides to prefer the active to the passive, we would choose the first of the following two sentences (Williams, 2007).
However, which one would we choose if the context were the following?
Our sense of flow requires not the first, active sentence but the second, passive one because the last words of the first sentence introduce important information (black holes in space). If we follow it with the active sentence, the first information we encounter is collapsed stars and marbles, which does not refer to anything in the text we have just read. If we follow it with the passive sentence, however, the first words repeat the information that we have just read and the last words give information about size and volume, which connects with the beginning of the third sentence.
 | Universities must decide whether they want to improve the quality of courses in the most popular disciplines alone or across the whole curriculum. The relative importance attached to commercial competitiveness or a well-balanced educational programme will determine the decision. |
The sentence above would be easier to read if the active verb determine were passive because the information that refers back to the previous sentence (the decision), which also has the advantage of being short, would be in initial position.
 | Universities must decide whether they want to improve the quality of courses in the most popular disciplines alone or across the whole curriculum. The decision will be determined by the relative importance attached to commercial competitiveness or a well-balanced educational programme. |
Again, if we followed the advice given by some journals and style guides to prefer the active to the passive, we would choose the first of the following two sentences (Williams, 2007).
| The collapse of a dead star into a point perhaps no larger than a marble creates a black hole. |
| A black hole is created by the collapse of a dead star into a point no larger than a marble. |
However, which one would we choose if the context were the following?
 | Some astonishing questions have been raised about the nature of the universe by scientists studying black holes in space. [...] So much matter compressed into so little volume changes the fabric of space around it in puzzling ways. |
Our sense of flow requires not the first, active sentence but the second, passive one because the last words of the first sentence introduce important information (black holes in space). If we follow it with the active sentence, the first information we encounter is collapsed stars and marbles, which does not refer to anything in the text we have just read. If we follow it with the passive sentence, however, the first words repeat the information that we have just read and the last words give information about size and volume, which connects with the beginning of the third sentence.
Recommended citation:
«Use verb forms that facilitate movement from old information to new» [en línia]. A: Llibre d’estil de la Universitat de Barcelona. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona. Serveis Lingüístics. <https://www.ub.edu/llibre-estil/criteri.php?id=3454> [consulta: 26 abril 2024].