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Brains are eaten by zombies

A neat trick for identifying a passive construction.

David Gane
David Gane

Saving this one for the future zombie apocalypse (and my students). From the book Write to the Point:

"There's a neat trick - first suggested, as far as I can discover, by the American academic Rebecca Johnson - for identifying a passive construction in case of doubt. Try adding "by zombies' after the verb. If you can do so, you're looking at the passive voice."
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David Gane

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Co-writer of the Shepherd and Wolfe young adult mysteries, the internationally award-winning series, and teacher of storytelling and screenwriting.

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