J eremy Carr’s account1 of improving students’ technical
writing by a collaborative approach provides educators with
a novel technique to engage students in the revision process.
He provides a well-developed thesis, and continued discussion
could benefit from clarification of terminology. Without more
specifics, coinage of the term “the technical voice” propagates
the eternal unrest2−4 in the scientific community over both the
grammatical and idiosyncratic role of voice in technical writing.
If voice carries the grammatical5 connotations regarding
whether or not the subject of a sentence or clause is the agent
of the verb, then is the technical voice active or passive?
Literary critics and experts on English usage advocate for use of
the active voice whenever possible because it provides more
direct, vigorous, and concise sentences.5,6 Proponents of
concise writing in the scientific community agree,2,3 most
with the caveat that authors should write themselves out of
experimental sections by the passive voice to portray
objectivity. As the author promotes concision, but eschews
use of first person pronouns, we could assume he agrees with
the latter, rendering the technical voice an impossible
combination of the active and the passive into one grammatical
voice. On the other hand, some technical writers encourage use
of the passive voice as much as possible, regardless of context.4,7
So, perhaps the technical voice is only passive?
Alternatively, voice may instead carry the idiosyncratic
implications of conforming to scientific writing norms. If this
is the case, then at one point, use of the definite article (the
technical voice) paints a bleak picture of scientific writing in
which individuals have no room for personal style, only one
homogeneous voiceperhaps not far from reality.2,3Under the
voice’s mandate, writers must replace the colloquialisms “use”
and “easy”with “utilization”and “facile”. They must conceal the
agent of every action, especially themselves. Indeed, these are
not Carr’s words, but if there is only one technical voice, then
surely these are aspects of it. For this reason and others, I do
not subscribe to the merits of a sole technical voice
J eremy Carr’s account1 of improving students’ technicalwriting by a collaborative approach provides educators witha novel technique to engage students in the revision process.He provides a well-developed thesis, and continued discussioncould benefit from clarification of terminology. Without morespecifics, coinage of the term “the technical voice” propagatesthe eternal unrest2−4 in the scientific community over both thegrammatical and idiosyncratic role of voice in technical writing.If voice carries the grammatical5 connotations regardingwhether or not the subject of a sentence or clause is the agentof the verb, then is the technical voice active or passive?Literary critics and experts on English usage advocate for use ofthe active voice whenever possible because it provides moredirect, vigorous, and concise sentences.5,6 Proponents ofconcise writing in the scientific community agree,2,3 mostwith the caveat that authors should write themselves out ofexperimental sections by the passive voice to portrayobjectivity. As the author promotes concision, but eschewsuse of first person pronouns, we could assume he agrees withthe latter, rendering the technical voice an impossiblecombination of the active and the passive into one grammaticalvoice. On the other hand, some technical writers encourage useof the passive voice as much as possible, regardless of context.4,7So, perhaps the technical voice is only passive?Alternatively, voice may instead carry the idiosyncraticimplications of conforming to scientific writing norms. If thisis the case, then at one point, use of the definite article (thetechnical voice) paints a bleak picture of scientific writing inwhich individuals have no room for personal style, only onehomogeneous voiceperhaps not far from reality.2,3Under thevoice’s mandate, writers must replace the colloquialisms “use”and “easy”with “utilization”and “facile”. They must conceal theagent of every action, especially themselves. Indeed, these arenot Carr’s words, but if there is only one technical voice, thensurely these are aspects of it. For this reason and others, I donot subscribe to the merits of a sole technical voice
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