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This month's free activity is an excerpt from our brand new book, Sentence CPR--Breathing Life into Sentences That Might as Well Be Pushing Up Daisies. Author Phyllis Beveridge Nissila surprises students with quirky, a little bit goofy sentences throughout the book, both in her examples and in the practice exercises themselves. You are likely to catch your students smiling as they learn ways to improve their writing.
Just a few items she deals with in the book: using detail effectively, writing in active voice, eliminating word overdose, using powerful verbs, and using appositives, infinitive phrases and participial phrases.
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Light a Fire Under Tired Sentences by Using
Active Voice

Imagine a child saying this: "Mom! Your dresser was painted by Freddy, and all your purple fingernail polish was used."
     It probably wouldn't happen. Instead, the child would say, "Mom! Freddy painted your dresser and used all your purple fingernail polish!" The child would know instinctively that active voice communicates a lot better than passive voice. Active voice gets up and moves. Passive voice is sluggish and slow.
     Okay, what is passive voice? What is active voice?
     With active voice, the subject of the sentence is acting or doing something. (Freddy painted. Freddy is doing something--painting.) In passive voice, the subject of the sentence is receiving the action. (The dresser was painted. The dresser isn't doing anything. It is receiving the action.)
     Here are two more examples:

Passive	Active
It was discovered by Francis that the freshness date on the jar of pickled liver was 1982. Clearly, another win for the tap dancing act "Riverdance, High Wire Version" was what was wanted by the Extreme American Idol crowd.	Francis discovered that the freshness date on the jar of pickled liver was 1982. Clearly, the Extreme American Idol crowd wanted the tap dancing act "Riverdance, High Wire Version" to win again.

Practice #1. The sentences below are in passive voice. Rewrite them so that they are in active voice. You will need to change some words around and add or delete words. (Hint: The verbs in bold are the words that must be replaced.)

It is hoped by Crenshaw that the fungus is not noticed by Cloris.
The stilt-dancing competition was hosted by Mortimer P. Windjammer High School for the third year in a row.
The kelp and radish soufflé was made by Aunt Balista.
Making us eat Aunt Balista's soufflé was regretted very soon after dinner by Mom.
The pan of red paint the puppies had been playing in was found quickly by Pietro.

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