Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1998. / Title from title page screen, viewed July 12, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Lucia C. Getsi (chair), James Elledge, William Woodson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-200) and abstract. Also available in print.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

Typescript (photocopy) / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1980. / Bibliography: leaves 150-154. / Microfiche. / vi, 154 leaves, bound 29 cm

This thesis reports on the use of active and passive voice in the workplace and classroom through analysis of surveys completed by 37 employees and 66 students. The surveys offered six categories of business writing with ten sets of two sentences each, written in active and passive voice. Participants selected one sentence from each set and gave a reason for each selection. The participants preferred active over passive 47 to 46 percent of opportunities, but they preferred mixed voice over both, 49 percent. The participants preferred active only for memos to supervisors; in the other five categories they preferred passive or mixed voice. Both males and females preferred mixed voice, and age appeared to influence the choices. They cited context as the most common reason for using passive.