Task 10

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 448.

Task 9

Task 8

Using grammar in writing

Task 7

Here is a flow diagram showing the stages in the process of turning a bill into an act. Note down the word or words used in the text 'How Parliament makes new laws' to link each stage to the one before it. Then discuss with another student the reason why each sequencer has been used.

The writing of a text about a process often involves the present simple tense of the passive voice. This is especially true in impersonal descriptions where the doers (agents) of the actions are not considered important enough to mention, or where there is no specific agent.

Are we told who performs the action in these sentences? Underline any agents you find.

a) Sugar cane is harvested out in the fields.

b) Farm workers load it onto lorries.

c) The drivers bring the sugar cane to the factory.

d) The workers put the sugar cane into huge crushers which will crush it.

e) The sugar cane is crushed in the huge crushers.

f) These machines are regularly maintained.

When a description of a process is given, it is usually assumed that the process will be the same no matter who does it. The passive voice is frequently used, as this construction allows the choice of not mentioning the agent of the action. Sometimes, however, the clarity principle requires an agent to be stated, as in the following example:

Once the diamonds are received by the diamond merchant, highly skilled technicians examine them for flaws and mark them preparatory to cutting.

In this case, the writer wants the reader to know that the agent is someone special, a highly skilled technician: the agent is important.

This text describes a process for producing an alternative fuel for diesel engines

a) With a partner, read the text and underline any agents you can find.

b) Also underline all uses of the passive voice.

c) Discuss the possible reasons for the writer's decisions about whether to use
passive, or active + agent, in each case.

In South Africa, researchers pro­cess sunflower oil to fuel diesel engines. An acid and a molecule are chemically combined to form an ester by removal of a water mol­ecule. It is easy to do this: an acid is added to the oil, which is then heated to 30-40° for a few hours. The fuel mixture which is produced in this way possesses properties very similar to those of ordinary diesel fuel, but the mixture causes less exhaust smoke than diesel fuel, and can actually improve engine performance.

In Brazil, researchers have car­ried out similar projects with processed vegetable oil.

A description of a process is usually in the present simple of the passive voice, but if a time clause is used as a sequencer, the main verb of the time clause can be either in the present simple or present perfect tense. Whether the tense is active or passive voice depends on the writer's other decisions about the need for an agent, and what aspects of the process are being emphasized.

The following time clauses are taken from the text on 'How Parliament makes new laws'. State why you think the writer chose the tense and voice that he did.

a) On the other hand it may be passed, or there may be no vote. When this happens, it goes to the committee stage . . .

b) When this happens it goes to the committee stage, where a small group of members (perhaps between 30 and 50), meet and discuss it in detail. When the committee has finished its work, it reports ...

c) Then the bill is taken for its third reading, which is a debate, just like the second reading, and a vote is taken. When it is passed, it goes to the 'other House'...

d) It is understood that the Queen will always accept bills which have been passed by both Houses. When the Queen's consent has been given, the bill becomes an act...

In general descriptions of a process, the present simple tense of the passive voice is used (e.g. First, the material is taken . . .). When the present tense is used in this way, it is often called the timeless present, because its use does not mean that the process is happening at this moment, but that it happens in precisely this way, repeatedly, and on many occasions: in other words, no specific time reference is necessary.
However, when the stages of a process are written up as a report, the report uses past tenses (e.g. First, the material was taken . . .). This is because one specific occurrence of the process, at a specific (past) time, is being reported.