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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
parta: Introduction
1. Rationale of the study
Nowadays, with the globalization process, English has become the most
powerful language all over the world. English is the official language of 45
nations, one - third of the world population speak English, 75% of T.V
programmes are broadcast in English, three-fourths of the post packages and
telegrams are written in English. English also is the main language of
Informatic Technology. English has reached the state standard language in
international communication. Especially, most of the magazines, newspapers
and internet sites... are published, exchanged in English. In Vietnam, there are
many newspapers as Vietnam News, Vietnam Economic Time which are
written in English. Vietnamese people have many chances to approach
foreign news material and more domestics news materials have been written
in English. It is a reason why the demand of learning English has been
developing noticeably. Everyone not only learns it to communicate face - to face but also to comprehend a great source of information.
The second reason for conducting the present research originates from
the fact that many sources of information are written in English. Especially, in
the modern life, with different reasons: work, jobs, or demand people want to
seek information on the newspapers, internet sites, etc. Moreover, newspapers
have become one of the most popular and powerful means of communication
and placed a displaceable part in man’s life but people have a very little time

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
for reading newspapers. That is why Brief News is one of the articles being
read regularly.

In Brief News, all aspects of social life briefly have mentioned quickly
and informatively. Thus, it does not require much time for readers to get
information and it is clear that, Brief News in English attracts more readers
than other types of news articles.
Although Brief News is always brief as mentioned above, in reality,
some events are displayed by passive voice. So, how it can be understood?
We have to realize the formation of the passive voice used. In this thesis, we
will study the passive voice and its usage in English Brief News Discourses.
2. Aims of the study
-This study:
-Aims at investigating the use of Passive voice in Brief News.
-Helping us improve a better understanding about the usefulness of
English Brief News.
-Showing the significance of using passive voice in Englsh Brief News.
3. Scope of the study
The study focuses on the written style rather than the spoken one of
English press. For the time and the limited size as well as, this study tries to
analyse of some follow prominent points.
First, the research deals with passive voice use and its explanations and
kinds of verbs that can be used in both active and passive sentences.
Second, the scope of this study is an investigation of passive voice in
Brief News (kinds and purposes).The source of materials is newspaper
articles taken from International Heral Tribute - a worlds daily newspaper -

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News

published by The New York Time, and Vietnam News - the very popular and
typical Vietnam newspapers written in English.
4. Methods of the study
To achieve the above mentioned aims, this reseach will be an integrated
descriptive analytical one. The following steps have been applied:
- Collecting data from the written pieces of BNDs in English with the
typical types of passive voice, tenses and fields.
- Finding the examples containing different types.
- Analysing some typical examples of each type.
Reaching some conclusions and roles on the subject and accordingly
giving necessary comments.
Because of the limitation of a graduation thesis, the study just
investigates a random collection of some Brief News in various fields such as
socio-politics, culture, sport, and health, etc.
5. Design of the sudy
Except for the acknowledgements, the table of contents as well as the
references, this study consists of three main parts:
Part A: Introduction
This is an introductory part, in which, we present the rationale, aims,
scope, methods, and design of the study.
Part B: Development
This part demonstrates the content of the thesis, which consists of four
chapters:
Chapter 1 deals with the theoretical background, an in - depth review of
the relevant literature related to the issue under investigation. Especially, a

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
review of theory related to passive voice and Brief News in English is
presented.
Chapter 2 investigates the passive voice Expressions in English Brief
News
Chapter 3 focuses on some typical tenses used with passive voice.
Chapter 4 deals with some typical fields that use Passive voice in
English Brief News.
Part C: Conclusion
The final part will conclude what has been discussed in the contents of
the study and give some suggestions for further study.

Part B: Development
Chapter 1

Theoretical Background

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News

1.1. Introduction
The study focuses on exploring the passive voice features and its using.
In addition, it also focuses on investigating Brief News and its popular types
and some specific fields of Brief News that also use passive voice. Within this
framework, this chapter deals with the literature relevant to the study of

passive voice in English Brief News.
1.2. An investigation of Passive voice
1.2.1. A general description of Passive voice
1.2.1.1. What is passive voice ?
Passive voice of an active tense is formed by putting the verb to be into
the same tenses as the active verb and adding the past participle of active
verb. The subject of the active verb becomes the agent of the passive verb.
When the agent of the passive verb is mentioned, it is preceded by the word
by and placed at the end of the clause.
Formation: A to be done (by B)
Ex:
Active:
Students plant many flowers for the green and fresh school’s garden.
Passive:
Many flowers are planted for the green and fresh school’s garden by
students.
However, the agent is not mentioned. In this case, the word by is not
needed to use.
Ex:
Active:

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
People cut down many trees in the old forest yearly.
Passive:
Many trees in the old forests are cut down yearly.

1.2.1.2. Kinds of verb can be used in both active and passive sentences
Only transitive verbs can be either active or passive
Ex:
Active: The “one way” signal indicates
Subject

Verb

the direction in traffic.

Direct object

Passive: The direction in traffic is indicated by the “one way” signal.
Subject

Passive verb

The Agent

1.2.1.3. Functions of the word “by” in passive sentences
To make an active sentence in to a passive sentence, move the previous
object to the subject position and the previous subject (now called Agent) to
the end of the verb phrase with by. In some cases, by is omitted. However, it
is kept when the agent who causes the action in the active sentence is rather
important.
Ex:
Active: Shakespeare wrote Hamlet play.
Passive: Hamlet play was written by Shakespeare.
The By phrase also explains how something is done.
Ex:

-The direction in traffic
Subject
- Sport magazines
Subject

is indicated
Passive verb

are listed

by

Passive verb

by

the “one way” signal.
The Agent

title and author.
How magazines are listed

1.2.3. When to use the passive voice?
It is believed that in Academic English passive voice are used more than
active voice, but writers may choose passive voice for the following reasons:

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
* When we do not know, do not know exactly, have forgotten, or even we
do not care who did the action or the agent is unimportant or unknown.
Ex:
-My car has been moved !
-Kenedy was assassinated in 1963.
* When We are more interested in the action than the person who does it.
That means it is not necessary to mention the doer of the action as it is
obvious who he is/ was/ will be.
Ex:
-The rubbish has not been collected.
-The streets are swept everyday.
-Your hand will be X-rayed.
* When the subject of the active sentence would be the indefinite
pronoun “one”.
Ex:
One sees this sort of advertisement everywhere.
->This sort of advertisement is seen everywhere.
* When the subject of the active verb would be “people”
Ex:
-He is suspected of receiving stolen goods (People suspected him of
receiving stolen goods)
* When the subject of the active sentence would be the indefinite
pronoun “one”.
.
Ex: A new public library is being built ( by our local Council).
* The passive voice may be used to avoid an awkward or ungrammatical
sentence. This usually done by avoiding a change of subject.
Ex: The sentence:

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
- When he arrived home, a detective arrested him
would be better expressed:
-> When he arrived, he was arrested (by a detective).
- When their mother was ill, neighbours looked after the children –
Would be better expressed:
-> When their mother ill, the children were looked after by neighbours.
* To be indirect, that is, to avoid blame
Ex:
Active: I have decided to terminate your employment.
Passive: It has been decided to terminate your employment.
* To avoid a “weak” subject in the active voice.
Ex:
Weak: Everyone knows that Ethanol is an exellent fuel.
Strong: Ethanol is known to be an exellent fuel for sparkignition
engines.
* To include a detailed description of a process.
Ex:
Active: Distillation purifies water.
Passive: Water is purified by heating it to the boiling point, considering
it, and collecting the product in a container.
* To avoid problems with masculine / femine pronouns.
Ex:
Active: Each student must include his / her name and address on his /

her application.
Passive: Students’s name and address must be included on each
application.

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
1.2.4. Other situations use passive voice
* Passive voice of continuous tenses requires the present continuous
forms of To be which are not otherwise much used.
Ex:
Active:

They are preparing the bridge.

Passive:

The bridge is being prepared.

Active:

They were carrying the injured player off the field.

Passive:

The injured player was being carried off the field.

* Other continuous tenses are exceedingly rarely used in the passive,
sentences such as:
They have / had been repairing the road…
They will / would be repairing…
* Auxiliary + Infinitive combinations are made passive by using a
passive infinitive.
Ex:
Active:

You must / should shut the doors.

Passive: These doors must / should be shut.
Active:
Other infinitive combinations:
* Verbs of liking / loving / wanting / wishing, etc +Object + Infinitive
form.
Active: He wants someone to take some photographs.
Passive: He wants some photographs to be taken.
* With “verbs of command / request / advice / invitation +Direct object
+ Infinitive”, we form the passive by using the passive form of the main verb.
For examples:

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
Active: He invited me to go.
Passive: I was invited to go.

* But with “advise / beg / order / recommend / urge…+ Direct object +
Infinitive + Object”, We can form the Passive into two ways:
- By making the main verb passive, as above, or:
- By “advise / beg / order / recommend / urge…+ That…Should +
Passive infinitive”.
For examples:
Active: He urged the Council to reduce the rates.
Passive: + The Council was / were urged to reduce the rates. Or:
+ He urged that the rates should be reduced.
Other Structures:
* “Agree / Be anxious / Arrange / Be determined /Determine / Decide /
Demand…+ Infinitive + Object” are usually expressed in the Passive by “
That + Object + Shoud be + Past participle”, as below:
Active: He decided to sell the house.
Passive: He decided that the house should be sold.
Gerund combinations:
* “Advise / Insist / propose / recommend / suggest + Gerund + Object”
are usually expressed in the Passive by “That + Object + Should be Past
participle”, as below:
Active: He recommended using bullet - proof glass.
Passive: He recommended that bullet - proof glass should be used.
* “It / They + need + gerund” can be expressed by “It / They + Need +
Passive infinitive”. Both forms are passive in meanings.

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News

Other gerund combinations are expressed in the passive by the passive
gerund.
Ex:
Active: I remember them taking me to the zoo.
Passive: I remember being taken to the zoo.
* The passive is sometimes preferred for Psychological reasons.
A speaker maybe uses it to disclaim responsibility for disagreeable
announcements.
Ex:
EMPLOYEE: Overtime rates are being reduced / will have to be
reduced.
The active form, of course, is used for agreeable announcements:
I am / We are going to increase overtime rates.
The speaker maybe knows who performs the action but wish to avoid
giving the name.
For example, in case of a claim, Tom, who suspects Bill of opening
Tom’s letter, may say:
“This letter has been opened !”
Instead of saying:
“Tom ( you / yourself ) have opened this letter ! (Because it is an
impolite speech)
* And Passive voice itself expresses its form by the structure: “ Have +
Object + Part participle”.
Ex: “I had the car repaired”.

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
It means that I suggest someone to repair the car. Someone did it, not me!
1.3. A general description of Brief News
1.3.1. What is Brief News ?
Brief news is the informative and brief product of the fields of life in
the world on which it reports.
Brief news is the end product of a complex process which begin with a
systematic sorting and selecting of events and topics according to a socially
constructed set of categories.
It also is a creation of a journalistic process, an artifact, acommodity
event.
(Roger Fowler, 1991: 02)
According to Tersky and Chernoff (1993: 48) Brief news (one subtype of
news stories) is a concept widely used by most pressmen and researchers to
refer to a type of news in which the reporters usually inform the readers only
the facts without overtly expressing their own opinions.
Brief News is not a natural phenomenon emerging straight from “reality”
but a product.
English Brief news can be the written or the spoken one and presented by
media such as newspapers, magazines, radios, television and so on.
1.3.2. Characteristics of an English Brief News
Except the based features like any kinds of press style, Brief news itself
always has to contain these following features.
* Direct and attractive
* Dynamic and impressive
* Objective and easy to read & understand

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
* Suitable and true to the news content
1.3.3. Based Structure of an English Brief News
The structure of an EBNs is normally organised in the following order:
- Location
- Headline
- Supporting detail(s)
- Writer attitude
- Reporter
1.3.4. Popular types of Brief News
Brief News conveys many issues of society, so, it includes a lot of
detailed information of each field. In the human’s life, there are many aspects,
but because of the limitation of time, I only refer to 4 kinds of Brief News.
* Social- political Brief News is the information that is used to describe
aspects of society and politics.
Ex:
PHNOM PENH

Accued ex-police chief escapes to Singapore
A former police chief who is wanted on charges he was involved in the
assassination

of a judge and other crimes has fled to Singapore, the

authorities said Wednesday.
(IHT; August 3, 2006)
* Economic Brief News contains the information about economy and
finance.

Ex:
Bank doubles profit

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
Korea exchange Bank, which is being taken over by Kookmin Bank, said
that its second quater profit almost doubled as it increased lending and sold
asserts.
Net income in the three months to June 30 rose to 628.5 billion won, or
$320.1 billion a year earlier, the Bank said.
(IHT; Thurday, August 3, 2006)
* Health Brief News informs about healthcare service and other related
issues.
Ex:
7 Indonesians treated for suspected bird flu
Seven Indonesians from the same village on Sumatra were being treated
Wednesday for bird flu symptoms, in what doctors and officals fear could be
two new clusters of the virus.
The patients, at least three of whom are children, were believed to have
been inflected by chickens in the same region of the island where seven
members of one family died in May. It was unclear if there was any
connection.
(IHT, August 3, 2006)
* Sport - Culture Brief News produces sport-culture events, famous
stars in the world.
Ex:

TENNIS:
Connors becomes Coach
Andy Roddisk has turned to Jimmy Condor to give his career a boost.
“I’ve got a coach, Roddisk said Monday at a news conference with
Connors, the winner of 109 titles and four Grand Slams, at the Los Angeles
Tennis center, where the country wide classic was being played...”
1.4. Significance of using Passive in English Brief News

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
Using passive voice in Brief News helps to shorten the refered
information, and make the Brief news more attractive, dynamic and
impressive the readers.
Ex:
West Bank
Gaza city:_ An Egyptian diplomat was kidnapped yesterday by gunmen
in the Gaza trip, a Palestinian Security Source said.
Jerusalem:_ Two armed Palestinians were killed yesterday when they
attacked Israeli soldiers at Erez, the main crossing point between the Gaza
trip and Israel, Israeli military source said.
(IHT; Friday, February 10, 2006)
1.5. Summary
In this Chapter, we have just given the most general look at passive
voice, Brief News and the usage of passive voice in English Brief News, as
well as its advantages. To understand more about the details, we will have a
deep research in the next chapter.

Chapter 2
An investigation of Passive voice expressions
in English Brief News
2.1. Introduction
In the previous chapter, we have mentioned the theoretical background
of passive voice and brief news as well. This chapter will deal with the use of
Passive voice in English Brief News. In the first part of this chapter, we
discuss the appearance and the role of passive voice in the headlines and in
the bodies of EBNDs. And in the second one, we will give the purposes of
using passive voice in English Brief News.

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
2.2. The use of passsive voice in English Brief News Headlines
2.1.1 .What is English Brief News Headline?
There are many different definitions that can be found in the dictionaries.
For example, in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, it is defined as:
A line of words printed in large letter at the top of a page or an article,
especially, in a newspaper.
(Hornby A.S. et al, 1999:551)
Consider another definitions of different linguists, Swan (1985:326)
proposed that Headlines are the short “title” above newspaper articles.
In short, a headline always stands at the top of an article to inform the
reader briefly what the news is about.
2.2.2. Passive voice in some typical headlines

Consider the following example:
- Money to build Iraq is placed in truth fund
(IHT; September 2, 2004)
And other examples:
- 2 lawmakers sentenced for praising Zarqwi
- 2 suspects arrested in art museum thefts
(IHT; Monday, August 7, 2006)
- 7 Indonesians treated for suspected bird flu
(IHT; Thursday, August 3, 2006)
- Discus champion banned
- Vietnamese language software launched
(VNs, Satursday, February 4, 2006)
- Tickets sold despite ban

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
(IHT, Satursday-Sunday, July 29-30, 2006)
Having a look at these examples above (except the first sentence) we can
recognise that the verb To be disappears. It means that in order to save the
space, passive voice is written in the short form, especially in these headlines:
- 23 on Asian Cargo ship rescued near Aleutians
(IHT; Wednesday, July 26, 2006)
- HCM city Hospital to be equitised
(IHT; Saturday, February 4, 2006)
- Four oil workers seized while three are freed
(IHT; Tuesday, August 15, 2006)

Here, the verb to be (were) is omitted.
As we have stated at the first part of this chapter, the roles of the headline
in Brief News are very important. It is an independent, but integrated part of a
news item, so, it is certainly connected to the content and the topic of the
whole pieces of the news. The following section will discuss the function of
using passive voice in the headlines of English Brief News.
Like any tittle, every headline is aimed at introducing the news items.
In journalism where thousands of news items and articles are issued each
day, the reader certainly has a habit of scanning through all the headlines of a
particular newspaper to choose the news items of their concern. By looking at
some key words in that field, the reader can easily and quickly find out the
news item of the results of the action rather than the doer.
Ex:
- 2 lawmakers sentenced for praising Zarqwi
(IHT; Monday, August 7, 2006)

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
- Vietnamese language software lauched
(VNs; Saturday, February 4, 2006)
2.3. The use of passive voice in the Body of English Brief News
Besides the use of tenses, moods, direct speech, and the way of stating
date, the use of Passive voice is an important feature that can be found easily
in English Brief News Discourses. This feature helps the writer to save the
time and let the reader focus on the events rather than the doer.
Let’s have a look at these following examples:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan
Clash with Taliban leaves at least 19 dead
Eighteen Taliban militants and one police officer were killed as Afghan
forces and coalition aircraft raided an insurgent hide-out…
PHNOM PENH
Accued ex-police chief escapes to Singapore
A former police chief who is wanted on charge he was involved in the
assassination

of a judge and other crimes has fled to Singapore, the

authorities said Wednesday.
(IHT; August 3, 2006)
KAMANDU, Nepal
UN Delegation meet with Maoist Leaders
A UN team met…how the United Nations should be involved…
The team headed by Staffan De Mistura…
The team was scheduled to meet…
(IHT; July 29 - 30, 2006)
The readers can guess and know all the information of Brief News via a
quick look at those bold words.

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
Consider other examples:
7 Indonesians treated for suspected bird flu

Seven Indonesians from the same village on Sumatra were being treated
Wednesday for bird flu symptoms, in what doctors and officals fear could be
two new clusters of the virus.
The patients, at least three of whom are children, were believed to have
been inflected by chickens in the same region of the island where seven
members of one family died in May. It was unclear if there was any
connection.
(IHT, August 3, 2006)
By using the passive voice in terms of combining many tenses together,
those words reflect notion of specific fields, so they are not really strange to
popular readers. By this way, not only the information is provided clearly and
exactly but the reader’s capacity of getting information will be obviously
increased as well.
Let's have a look at others:
Four oil workers seized while three are freed
Four foreign oil workers were kidnapped by armed men from a bar in
the Southern Nigerian city of Port Harcour, witnesses said Monday.
News of the kidnappings came just after the release of three Filipino gas
workers, who had been taken hostage 10 days ago…
(IHT; Tuesday, Auguist 15, 2006)
Journalist’s trial to start
A Hong Kong journalist who has been detained in mailand China for
nearly 16 months on spying charges will face trial this week, according to
Hong Kong based Human Rights group and press reports.

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A study on Passive voice in English Brief News
The information center for Human Rights and Democracy said Monday
that the trial of Ching Cheong, accused of spying for Taiwan, was scheduled
to take place Tuesday in Beijing…
(IHT; Tuesday, August 15, 2006)
BEIJING
Typhoon death toll rises to at least 225
The reported death toll in China from typhoon Saomai jumped to at least
255 on Monday after the authorities in Fujian Province said the number of
fatalities there had increased and scores of dead sailors had been pulled
from the sea.
Saomai, the eighth typhoon to hit China this Summer was the most
powerful to strike the mainland in half a century.
More than 100 people were still missing raising the possibility that the
number of fatalities from Saomai, which hit China’s Southeast Thursday
could climb still higher.
The bodies of missing sailors were found off the battered port city of
Fuding, where more than 1,000 ships sank.
(IHT; Tuesday, Auguist 15, 2006)
HoChiMinh city Universities to relocate
The HCM city’s people’s Committee has ordered the architecture and
planning Department to set up a management board and called for
investment to join in a project to relocate the city’s universities and colleges
to more suburban location.
Under the proposed plan, some universities and colleges will be
relocated to 20 ha in the Phuoc Long area of District 9. New universities will

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