Read the following sentences, and identify the error.

a. Paolo recruited job applicants for the company that showed promise.

The error in this sentence is a:_ .

b. We will be visiting our accounts in California, Oregon, and visiting our accounts in Washington.

The error in this sentence is a: .

Before you decide whether to use passive or active voice, you should consider the purpose of your message and the nature of the situation. Read the scenario, and then fill in the blanks.

You work for a printing company, and you realize that your colleague sent incorrect price quotes to a client. You begin to write an e-mail to the client to apologize for the mistake. You want to remedy the situation without criticizing your colleague. The sentence excerpted from the e-mail uses voice. Given the purpose of your message, this voice _____ appropriate.

Who showed promise? The company or the job applicants? This sentence is not specific and you really cannot tell whether the job applicants or the company showed promise.

b. We will be visiting our accounts in California, Oregon, and visiting our accounts in Washington.

The error in this sentence is a: LACK OF PARALLELISM.

In order to show parallelism you should include the dates of the visits, since you cannot visit all 3 states in the same day and do your work properly.

You work for a printing company, and you realize that your colleague sent incorrect price quotes to a client. You begin to write an e-mail to the client to apologize for the mistake. You want to remedy the situation without criticizing your colleague.

The sentence is missing, so I looked for a similar question:

"Bill made an error when he was processing your invoice."

The sentence excerpted from the e-mail uses ACTIVE voice. Given the purpose of your message, this voice IS NOT appropriate.

The whole purpose of this message is to solve a problem without criticizing Bill, but by using active voice, you are directly criticizing him.