I've always had a problem with passive voice. I can write decently well, but because I was raised in a very science and technical writing centered family, what I write tends to come out in passive voice. Partially because nobody ever properly told me what the **** it was. So, in English classes I would write completely off the wall, nuts stuff. This is partially my personality shining through, but it was also me not knowing how to write in a way that satisfied my English teachers. No more!
Today my teacher said, "Passive voice is anything that's written with a form of 'to be' as the verb." My head exploded. I've attended advanced English classes my whole life, but nobody ever bothered to break down what passive voice is. Here I was thinking that it was some complex set of rules that made something passive voice, when use of "etre" (French is better) form is all it is. On one hand, I'm just happy to know what the poop everybody has been talking about all this time. On the other, I want to go back to all of my old schools and punch my old English teachers in the face.
I've listened to all of Writing Excuses, including the one that they talk about passive voice in (I don't think it was a dedicated episode), and they didn't bother defining it. I suppose I could be alone here, but I have the feeling that on the internet somewhere out there, somebody will stumble over this post and finally realize what passive voice is. As I have done. Except that I had to pay like $500 to find out and they will get it free. Just knowing this totally makes the cost of this semester worth it.