Page 178 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

164 CHAPTER7
moves to the back of the sentence and into the fry-phrase. In passive con- structions, the nouns and noun phrases in the fry-phrase are called agents (and the entire phrase is called the agentivephrase).
In English passive construction, all agentive phrases are optional. In fact some of them can be downright incorrect.
A quick check to see whether a verb can be used in passive is to place it in a structure with a direct object:
report -> The book/article/xxx reports the finding. If the verb can be used with a direct object, the verb can be converted into passive. The verb report can be used in passive: Thefinding isreported (*bythe book/article).
hold -> xxx holds the book ->•passive constructions are possible ->• The book isheld (byxxx).
appear —>*The book appeared the page -> passive constructions are not possible.
last ->• The rain lasted (two hours) -> passive constructions are not possi- ble because two hours is adverbial of time and not a direct object (see chap. 3 for techniques to identify direct objects).
Analyses of written academic texts have demonstrated thatfry-phrasesoc- cur infrequently, and the presence of a fry-phrase depends on whether it is needed for cohesion and the continuity of new information from one sen- tence to the next by means of cohesive chains (e.g., Most consumer goods are soldfryretailers. Many in the retail trade industry have a size standard of 3.5 million in average annual receipts'). In other contexts, however, the fry-phrase is usu- ally omitted.
In such contexts where the agent isunknown,unimportant to the dis- cussion, or is easily understood from the context, the fry-phrase needs to be omitted:
(1)?Thefuel injectorwasdesignedbyustoshowitattheEngineeringSeniorFair.
(2) ?Weweretoldbysomeonethatacompany inEverett hasasimilarfuel injector.
(3) ?When their original designed was developed by them, they had to re-do it be- cause at first the injector did not work, but the one developed by us worked from the start. (All examplesarefromastudentassignmentinengineering.)
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