Welcome to Prose Activation Station

Connect, cut, and reconnect words, sound, images, and ideas.

tab this tabla

and listen as you read and remember

a simple one-two: agent-based prose

Select any paragraph from our recent batch of blogs and revision exercises. As you read focus your attention on the voice of the language. Do you find active configurations? Or passive constructions? This week, when we begin practicing the art of definition, and wrap up our narrative unit assignment, we'll produce longer swatches of related prose to consider. If you find a paragraph that "just doesn't seem right," read it aloud. Does the voice seem to shift randomly from active to passive voice, or does the writer seem to use voice to shift emphasis and direct your attention in order to amplify a particular argumentative pattern or point?

Experience grammatical voice as a rhetorical choice. Ask and answer these two questions:

who's the agent? Place this main character in the subject position (the beginning of your sentence)

what is the primary action performed by the agent, or main character? Place this verb immediately following the character performing the action

Perform this algorithm on your most recent blog, or on a portion of your narrative, or peer narratives and blogs. Then, read the results aloud. Finally, shift your attention to the paragraph's specific purpose, imagine it in a larger argument or final project. Revise back into the passive voice when it helps emphasize your paragraph's overall rhetorical purpose.

Now, look for transitions...will your readers see your sequence of ideas?