i***@gmail.com
2018-07-06 20:43:23 UTC
Recently, when trying to install some s/w, I got a pop-up saying "The download was unable to complete"
Maybe I am imagining it but I seem to be encountering more of these sentences. Another example I recently got in an email "The package was not able to be delivered".
Somehow I just find these sentences to be, for want of a better word, "awkward".
In the second example it would have sounded better to say "We could not deliver the package"- the "we" being, UPS in this case.
But replacing the first one with "We could not complete the download" does raise the question who the "we" is. Is it my PC? Is it the ISP? Is it the site from which I was attempting to download the s/w?
I know, I know, it's just a minor thing and the message is clear. But when you have gone through a lifetime of writing avoiding the passive voice as much as possible, a sentence like that does jar, doesn't it?
Maybe I am imagining it but I seem to be encountering more of these sentences. Another example I recently got in an email "The package was not able to be delivered".
Somehow I just find these sentences to be, for want of a better word, "awkward".
In the second example it would have sounded better to say "We could not deliver the package"- the "we" being, UPS in this case.
But replacing the first one with "We could not complete the download" does raise the question who the "we" is. Is it my PC? Is it the ISP? Is it the site from which I was attempting to download the s/w?
I know, I know, it's just a minor thing and the message is clear. But when you have gone through a lifetime of writing avoiding the passive voice as much as possible, a sentence like that does jar, doesn't it?