Portfolio 2: Reflection on the editing sessions Any writing exercises done in class

1. Portfolio 2: • Reflection on the editing sessions • Any writing exercises done in class • Draft with your peers’ comments (if you did not yet pass it in) • Your last reflection (if you did not yet pass it in) • Today: • Workplace genres • Agency and verbs • Passive voice and active voice • Seminar on Alison Hearn’s essay, part 2 • Sign-up for an appointment

2. and science writing! Workplace genres Reports Patient consultations Pamphlets Letters of recommendation

3. Attributing agency Who is responsible for an action? She says They go I am We went Active voice attributes agency (we acted) Passive voice obscures agency (actions were taken)

4. Stephen King, On Writing (your reading for next week) You should avoid the passive tense

5. “Verbs come in two types, active and passive. With an active verb, the subject is doing something. With a passive verb, something is being done to the subject of the sentence” (122). Active voice states. Passive voice is used. Passive: A lot of cake was consumed during the birthday party. Active: We ate a lot of cake at the birthday party.

6. The agent is not always a living being. . . …and sometimes we can’t discern an agent. The chemicals reacted with one another (active voice, non-human agent) Mice have been given entrance to the lab. By whom? Who let them in?!

7. Evading responsibility… “Mistakes were made” But sometimes no one is really responsible, or the responsible party is unknown… A virus was transported…

8. “Many devastating pathogens are passively dispersed, and their epidemics are characterized by variation that is typically attributed to environmental factors.” (Sometimes it’s OK, and even preferable, to use passive voice.) “To date, various polymeric materials have been tested for the preparation of biomaterials.”

11. What is the agent doing the existing (the “is”ing)? In this case, it is “best modern practice for . . . “ Here, the main verb is “regulate” and “the fan brake” is the agent. (We don’t know who installed it, so we switch to passive voice.) Indicate is the verb. What is the agent?

12. You should avoid the passive tense (Actually, you should avoid it most of the time.)

13. Healthcare, nutrition, social work Describing the situation Attributing agency And Distinguishing voices Example (social worker’s statement based on interviews): “Carer is unhappy about the money situation, and to a lesser degree the time problem, and threatens to stop caring. In my view, the carer may need counselling, and the carer and mother may need mediation” (Healy and Mulholland 76). Healy, Karen, and Joan Mulholland. Writing Skills for Social Workers. 2nd ed. Social Work in Action. London: SAGE, 2012.Print.

14. Elements of academic essays that are essential to workplace genres: Distinguishing voices (who is speaking, who has requested, who has said, etc.) Attributing agency (who or what is acting) Active voice when appropriate (sometimes switching into passive voice)

15. “The Politics of Branding in the New University of Circulation” By Alison Hearn “use value” vs “exchange value” “meaningful intellectual freedom” “academic values” Student are “both customers and commodities” “student satisfaction” …are you satisfied?