The rule favors direct sentence construction when it makes agency clearer, while the surrounding discussion still allows passive voice when context requires it.
The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 10, Project Gutenberg #37134; Strunk immediately qualifies the rule by noting legitimate uses of passive construction.
“Put statements in positive form.”
Strunk recommends stating what is true or intended directly when possible instead of making the reader reconstruct the point from repeated negation.
The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 11, Project Gutenberg #37134; the rule concerns sentence construction, not positive-thinking philosophy.
“Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic.”
Paragraphing is treated as an organizational decision: grouping one developed topic at a time helps readers follow the structure and movement of an argument.
The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 8, Project Gutenberg #37134; the book discusses exceptions for very short subjects and rapid narrative.
“There is then creative reading as well as creative writing.”
Reading can be an active intellectual act when the reader interprets, connects, questions, and produces new understanding rather than merely receiving words passively.
The American Scholar; Emerson argues that books should awaken independent thought rather than replace it.
“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”
Bacon distinguishes what reading, conversation, and writing each contribute to intellectual development.
Of Studies; Bacon distinguishes the intellectual uses of reading, conversation, and writing within the essay’s compact account of study and judgment.
“Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions.”
Milton treats disagreement as a natural consequence of serious learning: intellectual activity produces competing arguments because knowledge is still being worked out.
Areopagitica, in Milton’s defense of a city actively reading, discussing, and testing ideas.
“The first virtue, the touchstone of a masculine style, is its use of the active verb and the concrete noun.”
Behind the dated gendered phrase, the practical craft advice is to prefer active verbs and concrete nouns when they make prose more direct and intelligible.
On the Art of Writing, Lecture V, “Interlude: On Jargon,” Project Gutenberg #17470. “Masculine style” is retained as period wording, not endorsed as a gender standard.
