“THE test tube was carefully smelt.” I was astonished to read this sentence
in my 11-year-old son’s science notebook. At primary school his science reports
had been lively and vivid. But when he moved to secondary school they became
stilted and passive. This was no accident. His teachers told him to write this
way.
When I was at school, my science teachers made me write in the passive voice,
but I had no idea it was still going on. Ever since I was a graduate student at
Cambridge, I have thought the active voice—”I did”—far more
appropriate in…
