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Active Voice or Passive Voice?

Active Voice:
Simple & Clear!

Passive Voice:
Complicated but Scientific!

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Active voice or
Passive Voice???
 However, nowadays, many authorities are going
against this traditional notion and encouraging the
 Until recently, “passive voice” was considered
use of the “active voice”: “Academic papers
favorable for scientific writing!
should be easy to read and understand!”
This study investigated… (Objectivity)

In this study, “we” investigated …

(Subjectivity)

• The active voice: Introduction and Discussion: Where you

discuss previous research and then introduce your own.

Use a combination of “Previous studies have established that drug X increases

the serum levels of calcium in women. In this study, we

both!
investigated the effects of drug X on the serum levels.”

• Here, using the active voice in the second sentence helps the
reader make a clear mental transition from previous
studies to the present study.

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• The passive voice: the Methods section, where the steps

taken are more important than the doer.
Your guiding principle:
In a surgery document, “A catheter was inserted for post-
operative bladder irrigation” is preferred over “We inserted a
catheter for post-operative bladder
Clarity!
irrigation.”

Write from the point of

In your groups: “confidence” and “strength”
Write active and passive
sentences!

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Vancouver Style

References:
What is the “writing • Number all references
style” of EG-MU? • Arrange your list in the order in which the
references appear in your text
• If there are more than 6 authors, list the first 6
authors followed by “et al.”
• Use official abbreviations for journal titles, if
available.

Journal Article Reference: Thesis Example:

Family name-initial-full stop-title of article-full stop-journal
title-full stop-year-semi colon-volume number-issue number (1) Hasund IK. The discourse markers in English language: A 
WU1
corpus‐based, cross‐linguistics study [thesis]. Bargen: 
in parenthesis-colon-page ranges-full stop-Doi if available
University of Bergen; 2003.
• Kommlang M. Analytical essay writing: a traditional
Journal Article Example:
curriculum. Ad. physiol. Educ. 2012; 36(1): 54-7.

Doi: 10.1152/advan.00050.2011 (2) Errami M, Gardner H. A tale of two citations. Nature. 2008; 

451(71) : 397‐399
Note: If article is online, write [serial online] just after journal
title.

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In-text citations:

• Write the reference with a number in brackets

Can you write a reference in after the citation
• If you reference the source again, use the same
Vancouver Style??? number
• If you cite several sources in one sentence, cite
them as (2-4) to refer to sources 2, 3, and 4.
• You need to give a reference even when the
author`s name is stated in the sentence.

For example: Researchers such as Warwick, Taylor, Smith, and 
King et al. (7‐9) found that …

Quotation
Direct Quotations:
• Quotations of 3 lines or fewer: place in quotation
marks
• Quotations more than 3 lines: without quotation
marks in an indented paragraph

Examples:
1. “I am only an example!” (3, p. 125)
2. Stene defines quoting as: “ quoting is to avoid stealing 
other people’s ideas” (3, p.125)

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Indirect Quotation:
I am a good writer!
• A reformulation of the original text.
• Paraphrase the text: change the grammatical
structures and the terminologies in a way
that the meaning does not change!
Example: 
• Original sentence: Studies have shown that there is a 
direct relationship between sleeping in class and 
dying at very young ages (4).
• Paraphrased sentence (Indirect quotation): A 
positive relationship has been demonstrated 
between sleeping in class and death in young people 
(4).