Active and Positive
Active voice is usually direct, uses fewer words, and clearly assigns responsibility.
Positive form makes your assertions firm and easier for the reader to process instantly.
Active vs. Passive
Make the actor the subject of your sentence.
- Passive: The book was written by the author. (Action happens to the subject)
- Active: The author wrote the book. (Subject performs the action)
Passive to Active
- A decision was made by the board of directors that staff meetings should be attended by all employees.
- The error was noticed by the manager, but the corrected file was not uploaded until Tuesday.
- A warm welcome was extended to the guests by the host as they arrived at the venue.
Positive vs. Negative
Tell the reader what is, not what is not. Avoid unnecessary “not” or “un-” phrasing.
- Negative: She did not think that he was reliable.
- Positive: She distrusted him. / She thought he was unreliable.
Negative to Positive
- He did not remember to bring his passport to the airport.
- The committee did not feel that the proposal was complete enough for approval.
- They did not pay attention to the instructions that were given by the guide.
Political Narrative
Political narrative doesn’t necessarily have to do with US or state politics, but more broadly with cultural commentary, whether that is corporate politics, economic issues, social concerns, or conflicts between technology and society.
Review the case of plastic grocery bags in California.
Create a 5-paragraph essay on the subject
Outline
Introduction
Backstory and initial ban
Reversal of intended outcome
Subsequent total ban
Conclusion
Topics for assignment:
Narrative 1: The CrowdStrike Global IT Outage (2024)
Category: Technology vs. Society / Monoculture Risks
- The Setup: In July 2024, a single faulty software update pushed by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to Microsoft Windows machines crashed approximately 8.5 million computers worldwide. It instantly grounded global air traffic, halted hospital surgeries, shut down 911 dispatch centers, and disrupted banking infrastructure.
Narrative 2: The “Urban Doom Loop” & Remote Work (2020–Present)
Category: Corporate Politics / Economics / Social Order
- The Setup: The sudden shift to remote work during the pandemic revealed a deep conflict between corporate employees, commercial real estate developers, and municipal governments. As employees refused to return to office towers, corporate real estate values cratered, devastating the tax base of major cities and destroying the ecosystem of small businesses (lunch spots, dry cleaners, transit) reliant on office foot traffic.
Narrative 3: The Erasure of Digital “Ownership” (The Streaming Economy)
Category: Economic Issues / Cultural Property / Technology
- The Setup: Over the past decade, media companies transitioned consumers from buying physical media (CDs, DVDs, physical books) to paying monthly subscriptions (PlayStation Store, Discovery/Max, Amazon Prime Video). Recently, media companies began quietly deleting purchased digital movies from user libraries or pulling entire TV series off platforms overnight for tax write-offs, while simultaneously cracking down on password-sharing.
Narrative 4: Battlefield Dependency on Starlink
Category: Technology vs. State Sovereignty / Corporate Authority in War
- The Setup: When a cyberattack crippled Ukraine’s military communications at the onset of the 2022 invasion, SpaceX rapidly deployed thousands of Starlink satellite terminals. What began as an emergency backup quickly became the absolute backbone of modern algorithmic warfare—powering artillery targeting, drone strikes, and frontline communications. However, as the conflict dragged on, both sides became tethered to this privatized network, leaving nation-states subject to the geo-fencing policies, terms of service, and unilateral decisions of a single private corporation.