我的科技英语写作基础（系列），就是从语态开始的。
请看科技英语写作基础（系列）：语态(1)
http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-306792-1147403.html
为了“完整”性，我们继续用The Elements of Style 。不喜欢看英文原著的，凑合着看我的注解。
如果你的目标是写小说，应该看原版The Elements of Style （免费下载）：
http://www.jlakes.org/ch/web/The-elements-of-style.pdf
另外，我会用Google Translate。GT现在还不成熟，你不要拿它当回事。
II. ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION
14. Use the active voice.
The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive:
I shall always remember my first visit to Boston.
Google Translate: 主动声音通常比被动声音更直接，更有活力：
我将永远记得我第一次访问波士顿。
This is much better than
My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me.
The latter sentence is less direct, less bold, and less concise. If the writer tries to make it more concise by omitting "by me,"
My first visit to Boston will always be remembered,
Google Translate: 后一句话不那么直接，不那么大胆，也不那么简洁。如果作者试图通过省略“由我”来使其更简洁
我第一次访问波士顿将永远铭记在心，
it becomes indefinite: is it the writer or some undisclosed person or the world at large that will always remember this visit? （注解：被动语态有时会让人“想入非非。”）This rule does not, of course, mean that the writer should entirely discard the passive voice, which is frequently convenient and sometimes necessary.
Google Translate: 当然，这个规则并不意味着作者应该完全抛弃被动语态，这通常是方便的，有时是必要的。
注解：AI知道which＝这，但是，这样翻译更加容易读懂：用被动语态写作，通常比较方便，有时也是必要的。
The dramatists of the Restoration are little esteemed today.
Modern readers have little esteem for the dramatists of the Restoration.
The first would be the preferred form in a paragraph on the dramatists of the Restoration, the second in a paragraph on the tastes of modern readers. The need to make a particular word the subject of the sentence will often, as in these examples, determine which voice is to be used. The habitual use of the active voice, however, makes for forcible writing. This is true not only in narrative concerned principally with action but in writing of any kind. Many a tame sentence of description or exposition can be made lively and emphatic by substituting a transitive in the active voice for some such perfunctory expression as there is or could be heard.
Google Translate: 第一部分是关于修复剧作家的段落中的首选形式，第二部分是关于现代读者品味的段落中的第二部分。如在这些示例中那样，通常需要将特定单词作为句子的主题来确定要使用哪个语音。然而，习惯性地使用主动语音可以强制写作。这不仅适用于主要涉及行动而且涉及任何形式的叙述。通过用活跃的声音中的传递代替某些这样的敷衍表达，可以使得描述或阐述的许多温和的句子变得生动和有力。
注解：AI啊AI，我拿你没辙！
下面的四个例子为了说明一个道理：短句子更加有力。
There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground.
Dead leaves covered the ground.
At dawn the crowing of a rooster could be heard.
The cock"s crow came with dawn.
The reason he left college was that his health became impaired.
Failing health compelled him to leave college.
It was not long before she was very sorry that she had said what she had.
She soon repented her words.
Note, in the examples above, that when a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Thus, brevity is a by-product of vigor.
［科技英语写作基础（系列）：大纲（1）
http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=306792&do=blog&id=1146690
科技英语写作基础（系列）：大纲（2）
http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=306792&do=blog&id=1146716］
1. 语态（1）
2. 常用时态
3. 一些标点符号“规则”（句号、逗号，参考The Elements of StylePart I）
4. 一些语法“规则”（主语、谓语的一致性、变化多端的代词、分词短语的主人，参考The Elements of Style Part I）
5. 一些基本的写作“原则”（文章结构、段落、语态，参考The Elements of Style）
6. 修改、修改、再修改［简洁为上, see Chapter 7 Concision by Joseph／三种修饰语＋两种“问题修饰语”，即悬空修饰语（p161）、错位修饰语／, see Chapter 8 Length by Joseph／逻辑性／一致性］
请大家多提意见。
