Rewrite all of the following sentences so they are in the active voice. Some sentences could contain more than one passive verb; correct them all.
1. After a contentious debate, it was decided that the board members would take a 15-minute recess.
2. Analyst Sandra Richards said she is worried about the repercussions of her whistle blowing, but knows it is too late for second thoughts; her letter has already been sent to the commission.
3. The gruesome accident was witnessed by many children as they were being taken to school by their parents.
4. Iowa’s Alice Campbell completed her second marathon last weekend, 10 years after she had been given only two years to live by doctors.
I'll do the first one for you ... then it'll be your turn. Someone here will be happy to check your work for you.
1. After a contentious debate, the board members decided to take a 15-minute recess.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/539/05/
Alice Campbell complete her second Iowa marathon last wee, 10 years after doctor gave her 2 years to live.
The only part of that sentence that needs any changes is the part after the comma, so make sure you keep the first part unchanged. You did fine changing the second part.
Next? =)
please is the one i just did good to go or i need to rewrite it again?
Just make sure there are no changes before the comma. The changes you made after the comma are fine.
4. Iowa’s Alice Campbell completed her second marathon last weekend, 10 years after she had been given only two years to live by doctors.
Iowa’s Alice Campbell completed her second marathon last weekend, 10 years after doctor have giving her 2 years to live.
3.The gruesome accident was witnessed by many children as they were being taken to school by their parents.
The gruesome accident was witnessed by many children as they were being taking to school by their parents.
4. Iowa’s Alice Campbell completed her second marathon last weekend, 10 years after she had been given only two years to live by doctors.
Iowa’s Alice Campbell completed her second marathon last weekend, 10 years after doctors gave her only two years to live.
#4 is OK now, if you include my corrections in bold.
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3.The gruesome accident was witnessed by many children as they were being taken to school by their parents.
The gruesome accident was witnessed by many children as they were being taking to school by their parents.
#5 is not fixed. There are passive voice verbs in both parts of that sentence, which I've underlined. How will you fix them? Make sure the person/people who did the actions of the verbs are the subjects of those verbs.
4. Iowa’s Alice Campbell completed her second marathon last weekend, 10 years after doctors gave her only two years to live.
The gruesome accident ware witness by many children when the parent was taking them to school.
Who witnessed the accident?
The gruesome accident ware witnessed by school children when the parent was taking them to school.
Who saw the accident? (saw = witnessed)
And ... how many parents??
The gruesome accident ware witnessed by school children when the parents was taking them to school.
The children's saw the gruesome accident when their parents were taken them to school
is that how it suppose to be?
Yes ... just do two things:
1. Get rid of 's on the end of "children" and
2. change "taken" to "taking" and then it'll be fine.
The children saw the gruesome accident when their parents were taking them to school.
Now #s 4 and 5 are correct, yes.
now the most tough one for me is # 2
2. Analyst Sandra Richards said she is worried about the repercussions of her whistle blowing, but knows it is too late for second thoughts; her letter has already been sent to the commission
Analyst Sandra Richards said she is worried about the repercussion of her whistle blowing, notice its too late, but the letter has already been sent to the commission.
Re-think the parts in bold; get rid of the "to be" forms in order to make them active, instead of passive. Read and reread and rereread the information in the link I gave you above.
Analyst Sandra Richards said she is worried about the repercussion of her whistle blowing, notice its too late, but the letter has already been sent to the commission.
The underlined part is simply inaccurate -- it should be identical to that section in the original sentence.
Analyst Sandra Richards said she is worried about the repercussion of her whistle blowing, but knows it is too late, but the letter have already been sent to the commission
How are these two different?
Analyst Sandra Richards said she is worried about the repercussion of her whistle blowing, but knows it is too late, but the letter have already been sent to the commission
and
Analyst Sandra Richards said she is worried about the repercussions of her whistle blowing, but knows it is too late for second thoughts; her letter has already been sent to the commission
there is a lot of different in the because the last sentence has been change from
but the letter have already been sent to the commission to
her letter has already been sent to the commission
The verb is still passive.
Who worries?
Who sent the letter?
Active verbs mean the SUBJECT is DOING the action.
ok thank you very much, i learn a lot fir the past hour with you
You're vet welcome.
Active and passive voices are not easy to understand, I know. Just keep working on them!