Re: [office-comment] Passive voice verb phrases

[Patrick Durusau <patrick@durusau.net>]

Alex,

Alex Brown wrote:
> Paul hi
>
>   
>>> I think what the author intended here was "whitespace characters in
>>>       
>> elements DECLARED TO HAVE ONLY element content are ignored".
>>
>> Laying aside the merits of the comment, this should be rephrased in
>> active voice using requirement keywords.
>>     
>
> Right, so you'd prefer something like:
>
> "An ODF processor shall ignore whitespace in elements declared to have only element content" ?
>
> I agree that is better.
>
> I wonder, did all the passive voicing derive from the fact that the narrative was originally a commentary spun around the schema?
>
>   
I can't say for sure but I do know that removing the schema has forced 
the text to be more direct in may ways. For example, I encountered only 
yesterday a reference to "the following attributes." In the original 
context that made perfect sense since it was followed by a schema 
fragment. Granted that is incorrect standards prose in my opinion but 
understandable in its original context.

Hope you are at the start of a great week!

Patrick

-- 
Patrick Durusau
patrick@durusau.net
Chair, V1 - US TAG to JTC 1/SC 34
Convener, JTC 1/SC 34/WG 3 (Topic Maps)
Editor, OpenDocument Format TC (OASIS), Project Editor ISO/IEC 26300
Co-Editor, ISO/IEC 13250-1, 13250-5 (Topic Maps)