Responding to the use of the passive in The Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘Last koala habitats get the chop’ story, a reader sent in the following letter:
Incident of the passive verb
The article “Last koala habitats get the chop” (smh.com.au, October 28) refers to the police issuing “a warning against violent protests, in light of recent logging-related incidents in Tasmania, which saw an activist’s car smashed”. Please get rid of that passive verb. It was loggers who took a sledgehammer to a car with an activist inside it – the incident saw nothing.
Naomi Blackburn Darlinghurst
Critical Discourse Analysis in action.
Via John Knox.
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