One of the great dreams of man must be to find some place between the extremes of nature and civilization where it is possible to live without regret.
--Barry Lopez
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| Interpretive Writing Intensive
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REGISTER NOW
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Only 3 spaces left--don't wait!
Registration closes Oct. 8.
Oct. 12-17, Oregon House
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The Interpretive Writing Intensive at Oregon House
is a week away and almost full! It's shaping up to be a great group of
folks, too--we have people from Hawaii, Nunavut, Yukon, Oregon, California, Washington, Alaska, and Colorado.We have only three spaces left, so if you're interested, register today. Please don't hesitate to contact me by phone (888/886-9289 or 970/416-6353) or email or through our web site if you have questions or need more information.
Judy Fort Brenneman
Greenfire Creative, LLC
P.S.
Know someone who could use the information in this newsletter? Click
"Forward email" at the bottom of the newsletter, or contact me and I'll add their name to the
list.
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Want to Host a Writing Workshop?
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| We offer one, two, and four-day interpretive writing workshops. If you're interested in an on-site workshop, contact Judy by email or call 888/886-9289. |
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In Honor of Academia...or Not
Well, we're about six weeks into the Fall semester. The cottonwood in my backyard released several bushels-worth of branchlets--leaves still green--in last Wednesday's windstorm, and I used yesterday's shivery drizzly weather as an excuse to not pick up the mess. Odd looking frameworks that will morph into floats for next Friday's homecoming  parade hunker in wide driveways and stubbled fields. Some nights, the air smells like snow, and it's snowed in the high country but not down here yet. Pumpkins, ghouls, and cornstalks are appearing on porches. The irises have been transplanted, the leftovers mulched.
And along with all these markers and rituals of autumn are thousands of college students immersed in Important Classes and diving into Important Works. All those research papers and scientific publications. All those sentences filled with passive voice.
I know the reason researchers and scientists gravitate toward passive voice: it lets them write without using personal pronouns. It lets them avoid naming names, including their own. (Remember "Mistakes were made"? That's passive voice dodging responsibility.)
Passive voice helps create the appearance of an objective, fact-based treatise, one that conveys information not limited or biased by a specific individual's perspective or personal interest. Of course, the appearance of objectivity is not the same thing as true objectivity; everything is biased to some degree.
Interpretive stories are inclusive, not anonymous; avoiding personal pronouns is the last thing we need. We create balanced stories by drawing our information from multiple and diverse sources, not by hiding behind the language. We craft stories that engage our readers and share our enthusiasm with them. We persuade them to jump in, to reflect, to discover. That takes active voice.
Active voice is more compelling. It's easier to read and understand. It doesn't make your eyes roll up into your head in confusion, exhaustion, or exasperation.
What, exactly, is passive voice? Your word processor might flag "passive" for you--but beware! It's probably snagging on "to be" verbs, especially past tense. All passive voice sentences include a form of "to be" (am, is, was, were, are, been), but just because there's a "to-be" in your sentence doesn't mean the sentence uses passive voice.
In passive voice, the verb describes the receiver of the action. In active voice, the verb describes the doer of the action.
PASSIVE VOICE: the receiver of the action is described by the verb.
The ship was abandoned by the captain.
In this sentence, the subject, ship, is the receiver of the action described by the verb, was abandoned; the verb phrase was abandoned is in passive voice.
ACTIVE VOICE: the doer of the action is described by the verb.
The captain abandoned the ship.
In this sentence, the subject, captain, is the doer of the action described by the verb, abandoned. The verb abandoned is in active voice.
In both sentences, captain is the "doer" of the action, and ship is the "receiver" of the action.
Here's another example:
Sieur de Bienville founded Mobile in 1702.
Mobile was founded in 1702 by Sieur de Bienville.
In the first sentence, Sieur de Bienville is the subject and the doer of the action - he founded (he did the founding). In the second sentence, Mobile is the subject and the receiver of the action (it was founded; it did not do the founding.). Sieur de Bienville is the doer of the action in both sentences.
There are only three situations in which you may want to consider using passive phrasing (and one of those is iffy):
- When you want to place greater emphasis on the receiver of the action than on the performer (or doer) of the action. For example: The citizen was found guilty of violating his neighbor's rights by the court. (I want to emphasize the subject, citizen, rather than the doer of the action, court.)
- When the performer of the action isn't known. For example: The falcon has been injured. (I don't know who or what injured the falcon.)
- When it is not necessary to name the performer of the action. For example: The constitution was moved to the underground vault for safekeeping. (It doesn't matter who moved the constitution; the important thing is that it was moved for safekeeping.) Warning: This form of passive voice has been used to deny culpability, dodge blame, and avoid responsibility ("Mistakes were made.") Not a good use of passive phrasing!
Active voice results in livelier,
more effective writing.
Have a comment or question? email me
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River of Words Contest for Kids
Kindergarten through high school
Contest entry deadline December 1, 2009
The 2009-2010 River of Words (ROW) contest is now underway. Here's how to participate and where to find free curriculum. Read on! Click the links at the end of this article, too.
River of Words (ROW) is a FREE international poetry and art contest for youth on the theme of watersheds. The contest is designed to help youth explore the natural and cultural history of the place they live and to express, through poetry and art, what they discover. The contest is held in affiliation with The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Many states have ROW coordinators who can provide specific information about local literature and ecology. Some, like Colorado, hold state-level ROW contests in conjunction with the international contest and award state ROW prizes. (In Colorado, the ROW program is coordinated through the Colorado Humanities & Center for the Book. Colorado writers and artists are the judges for the state competition, and winners are recognized each spring in Denver at the Student Literary Awards.)
ROW is open to any child in the world, from 5-19 years of age. Older students must not have completed high school. There is no charge to enter. Students may enter on their own, or as part of a group (classroom, Girl Scout troop, 4-H, etc.). All entrants receive acknowledgement in the form of a "Watershed Explorer" certificate.
About 100 poems and artworks from both U.S. and international entries are selected as finalists each year. Poetry submissions are judged by River of Words co-founders Robert Hass, who served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 1995-1997, and writer Pamela Michael. Art entries are judged by children's book writer and illustrator Thacher Hurd. All winners receive ribbons, books and/or art supplies, t-shirts, and other prizes. Eight Grand Prize winners-four in poetry and four in art, in four different age categories-are chosen from the U.S. entries.
Category I - Kindergarten-Grade 2
Category II - Grades 3-6
Category III - Grades 7-9
Category IV - Grades 10-12
Winners are announced each April at a gala event at the San Francisco Library. The Grand Prize and International winners win an all-expense paid trip to Washington, DC to attend the ROW Award Ceremony at The Library of Congress.
Contest entry deadline is December 1, 2009.
Click here:
for info from River of Words, including entry forms and submission guidelines.
for contest guidelines, entry forms, and Colorado Humanities free "Poetry of Rivers" curriculum authored by award-winning Colorado poet Kathryn Winograd.
to view a short movie about River of Words in Colorado (includes some of the winning entries from last year):
for more info about The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress
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From our readers
Interpreter Mr. Bev Tyler says:
My best remembrance was at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire England. The PR says, "one of the finest and most unchanged examples of Elizabethan architecture in England. Here you can see Europe's finest collection of 16th and 17th century tapestries and embroidery."
Sounds great! Sounds deadly. (I love England.)
We went in and paid the admission and asked if there was a children's guide. The lady said there was but her look said, "why"? She then proceeded to offer us a guidebook that gave us room by room information on the famous hall and its contents. I thanked her, bought the children's guide, and we started through the building.
As we were going along, I was quietly reading the guide and telling Barbara the stories in it. It was fascinating with stories of intrigue, murder, love, piracy, rebellion, a strong female character (Bess of Hardwick) and much more. Each room referred to a number of the artifacts, pictures, architecture and told a story or two as we went along. In spite of being quiet, a few people started to walk along with us and by the time we had finished we had a crowd following us along throughout the Hall.
I am an interpreter and tell a first and third person story of Revolutionary War farmer and spy Abraham Woodhull as we travel through his farm that is now mostly second growth forest. I introduce my guests to my farm and the environment that I lived in as well as the, supposedly more important, story of the Culper Spy Ring that operated out of Setauket during 1778-1781.
I also curate and interpret an exhibit on the women who went to sea with their ship captain husbands during the 19th century. In spite of all the wonderful stories about these women, their children and the ship captains, the story that seems to interest the most people is about how we found the first ship captain and wife, who traveled to China and Japan 1858-1861. How their oil portraits were found at opposite ends of the country in two different bed and breakfasts and how this discovery started us on a search for more Long Island women who went to sea is the best story in the exhibit. Wonder of wonders.
Mr. Beverly C. Tyler
Long Island, New York
Bev's email
HistoryCloseatHand.com
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