Editorial

If you can dream it, do it

It’s never too late to make memories.

The Medium

Asthe winter semester nears its end, many of us are regretting not being more involved on campus. Even more so with the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union’s looming elections, campaign signs, poster boards, and soon enough, voting, will have filled the main corridors of the university, reminding us of our campus’ strong social solidarity.

Reflecting on what we “could have” and “should have” done looks different for each of us. For some it’s just a passing thought, while for others, it elicits a motivation to join the clubs we always wanted to try out and to finally experience many of our campus firsts—like going to the gym, trekking the UTM trails (maybe skip this one in this weather), or asking for help with a final paper at the Robert Gillespie Academic Skill Centre. The Medium encourages you to explore and learn more

ANDREA PIACQUADIO/PEXELS

about the clubs, societies, resources, and activities you’ve always been too shy or busy to give second thought. To socialize, befriend, and write a new chapter in your story of life.

Apply for those positions, even if you don’t think you have the experience. Join those clubs, even if you think it’s too late. And approach those professors, even if the research position applications are closed. Give your everything and try your hardest. And if things don’t go as planned, don’t worry, everything will be forgotten by September, and you’ll be presented with a fresh slate. If things do go as planned, then you’ll have an update for your LinkedIn network.

@themediumUTM @themediumUTM

@themediumUTM @themediumUTM

@themessageUTM @humansofUTM_

Thefirst thing they teach you in English classes is: don’t use the passive voice.

I strongly believe that not all passive voice is bad in writing. I’m not saying you should always write in passive voice. I want to be clear that I am totally all for active voice in writing whenever it’s possible. You want your sentences to be clear, and it’s true that active voice succeeds more often than not at maintaining clarity. But one or two passive sentences in an an article or essay shouldn’t be such a big deal.

What’s the issue with passive voice anyway? Here’s an example of a sentence with passive voice: “The boy was bitten by the dog.” In a passive sentence, the subject (the boy) is acted upon. Usually, passive voice distances the action from the person who performed said action. If you take a writing class, you’ll notice that they strongly discourage you from writing in passive voice and prefer that you use active voice instead (“The dog bit the boy”). I’m not saying to overuse passive voice. Frankly speaking, you don’t want to overuse any kind of sentence in writing. Too much passive voice isn’t cute, but that doesn’t mean we should exclude it entirely.

Take for example, the fake scenario that Earth is attacked (yes, it’s corny but bear with me). The sentence, “The Earth was attacked” is passive. Sure, it could be aliens or some sentient beings or whatever, but, what if we don’t know who attacked Earth? What if all we knew at the time was that Earth was attacked?

Surely, the sentence “The Earth was attacked” couldn’t possibly be a problem. Yet, some writers are so keen on using the active voice, that they avoid using the passive voice entirely! It’s frankly a little ridiculous—why can’t we just have a balance in writing? It is exhausting when we take everything to the extreme. Yes, there are good reasons why we should use active voice whenever we can. Passive voice sentences tend to be longer, indirect, impersonal, and can even come across as evasive. So if it’s possible, definitely choose active voice. But can we please get rid of the narrative that passive voice is the absolute worst? Sometimes when you’re writing, the actor or author is unknown. Or you just want to be vague. (Who wants to read a mystery that reveals everything in the first chapter anyway?) Sometimes the focus isn’t on the person, but the action being done. “My car was stolen.” Who stole it? Obviously, a thief. When you want to keep the focus on an action or the recipient of said action, it can make more sense to omit the doer In certain scientific and legal contexts, the experiment or procedure is more important than who is conducting it. There is a time and place for passive voice—as with all writing techniques.

Sometimes, the passive voice is unavoidable. Using passive voice shouldn’t mean you’re a bad writer. Grammar is important. It should be okay to sprinkle some passive voice into your writing for sentence variety. Yes, it’s generally a good rule to write with the active voice. But sometimes, rules are meant to be broken.