On Tue, Jul 25, 2000 at 03:33:15PM -0400, Amir Karger wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 25, 2000 at 09:27:54PM +0300, Lior Silberman wrote:
> > On Tue, 25 Jul 2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> >
> > Although the DocStyle forbids, Hebrew style accepts the passive voice more
> > than English. It might be acceptable do use "xyz should now be done" in
> > addition to "you should now do xyz".
Question #1: Did you read the DocStyle section for translators? I
believe it says, someplace, something like...
> If Hebrew style says the passive voice is good (of course it does; several
> binyanim have nothing *but* passive voice!) then it's totally fine to use
> it. English doesn't have binyanim (in the same way) so passive voice usually
> sounds bad.
At work, the tech-writers were discussing the merits and drawbacks of
using the passive voice to sound more professional. In American
English, during the past few decades, school teachers have been trying
to get students to avoid the passive voice whenever possible. I'm
guessing that, at one point, using the passive voice gave speech a
certain air of authority or objectivity. It's been so overused,
however, that there's now this trend (at least here in America's
schools) to teach students to avoid it unless absolutely necessary.
As I said in the section for translators, however, other languages
have other rules. In some languages, there's a special verb tense
that one *must* use whenever conveying information that's heresay
(i.e. not your own direct experience). English has no such thing.
English does have a gender-neutral pronoun, "one," that you use in
place of "he" or "she". It sounds rather archaic to some, however,
and most people use the plural "they" nowadays instead (though that's
technically incorrect).
I was unaware that Hebrew had implicit gender built into every
sentence with "you" as the subject. Here's a suggestion:
Assume that you're writing the document as if you were speaking to a
friend, but that you must do so in a way that doesn't imply gender.
If passive voice is how one does this in Hebrew, go for it. If plural
works, use that instead.
Use good judgement, whatever you decide.
--
John Weiss
"Not through coersion. Not by force. But by compassion. By
affection. And, a small fish." -His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama
