Choosing the best verb: An active and passive voice mini-lesson
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=280
A lesson plan for grade 12 English Language Arts
In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students look at the use of passive and active voice. For most students, speech and informal writing flows naturally. When it comes to more formal writing, however, students frequently choose passive voice constructions because to them, the verbs sound more academic or more formal. Students explore verb choice in a variety of online resources then draw conclusions about verb use which they can apply to their own writing. Students use an Interactive Verb Observation Chart during their website investigation.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
English Language Arts (2004)
Grade 12
- Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
- Objective 6.01: Apply knowledge of literary terms, grammar, and rhetoric in order to write clearly, succinctly, and accurately by:
- understanding how to use and apply grammatical, metaphorical, or rhetorical devices.
- recognizing how to use different language conventions (such as loose or periodic sentences, effective use of passive voice, or the importance of strong verbs).
- revising writing to enhance voice and style, sentence variety, subtlety of meaning, and tone in considerations of questions being addressed, purpose, audience, and genres.
- contrasting use of language conventions of authors in different time periods of British literature.
- analyzing the power of standard usage over nonstandard usage in formal settings such a job interviews, academic presentations, or public speaking events.
- Objective 6.01: Apply knowledge of literary terms, grammar, and rhetoric in order to write clearly, succinctly, and accurately by:
