Giles Parker English Academy Podcasts

The passive voice for reports Hi and welcome to another great lesson from New English Academy. I’m your guide, Giles Parker, and today we’re going to look at the controversial usage of the passive voice. The comprehension text looks at a report by the BBC last year that described UK Health Protection Agency advice on the use of Smartphones. This lesson is aimed at more advanced learners but if you aren’t advanced don’t worry. Hang in there – you will find something useful for you. As always, you can get the interactive lessons online by subscribing at our website, New English Academy.com. First, let’s talk about the passive voice. I said it was controversial. That means that people are not sure whether it is a good or useful thing to use. For example, I can use this MS Word software to automatically check for passive constructions so I can delete them. Why should I want to delete them? They are just another part of grammar, aren’t they? Well, let’s find out. You probably know by now that the p