Thanks for doing this! I just wanted to post about the confusion about Clyde’s “casual writing” question in the middle of the interview. We figured out what Clyde meant by that question about 15 minutes after the interview was over.

What we really wanted to talk about was Active Voice vs. Passive Voice.

It goes like this: When people are trying to explain something to themselves, there is a very strong tendency to adopt passive voice.

In passive voice, the subject of the sentence receives the action of the verb, while in active voice the subject of the sentence performs the action of the verb.

Passive Voice: The ball was thrown.

Active Voice: I threw the ball.

The first time you write down a set of rules or instructions, you are quite likely to write in the passive voice unless you really think about what you’re doing. You are attempting to explain the rules to yourself without realizing it.

Why is that a bad thing? Passive voice has its place, but the problem with it is that the actor is hidden or obscured. The ball was thrown, but who threw the ball?

In simple sentences, it’s not too bad. But the hidden nature of the subject tends to make sentences more complex and convoluted than they need to be. Often, the result is very difficult for a reader to follow.

As you clean up a text, particularly in the editing pass between the first and subsequent drafts, it’s essential to find instances of passive constructions and untangle them.

The reader will thank you for it!