Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Active and Passive Voice 
The terms “active” and “passive” voice are old metaphors for certain 
grammatical constructions. Active voice constructions contain subjects that 
“do something”. These constructions have positive connotations of action, 
dynamism, energy and determination (White 1996:181). Passive voice con-
structions, on the other hand, contain subjects that do not do anything. 
These constructions have the opposite connotations to active voice con-
structions. The passive voice is typified by the following characteristics: 
The subject is acted upon. 
The predicate generally contains an auxiliary verb that is in the form of 
to be. 
The sentence contains a prepositional phrase 
While it may be helpful to switch between active and passive voice in order 
to emphasise either the subject or the logical object (White 1996:182), it is 
widely held that the passive voice interferes with the clarity of sentences 
(White 
ibid.
; Mancuso 1990:156-171; D’Agenais & Carruthers 1985:102-
3). It is also more difficult for readers to understand the sentence because of 
problems with identifying the actor and also because of delayed meaning 
(Mancuso 1990:166-7). 
Imperatives
Using the active voice in conjunction with the imperative mood is an im-
portant strategy in procedural texts where the reader is required to either 
perform certain tasks or refrain from carrying out certain actions. In contrast 
to constructions that do not use the imperative, there is no confusion as to 
who is to carry out the task because the second person pronoun 
you
is im-
plicit (Price 1984:103). Take, for example, the following sentence: 
The necessary drivers must be installed on the PC. 
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Technical Communication 
From this sentence it is not clear who is supposed to perform the task. Is it 
the reader or is it someone from the IT department? It would be better to 
phrase the sentence as follows: