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Passive beauty on the news website

Bernard Gabony

is lead multimedia trainer, BBC News

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The eurozone doesn't excite me. But the opening sentence here did (sad but true):

"Tough rules for the eurozone, aimed at averting another financial crisis, have been agreed at an EU leader's summit."

Why? Because it would have been so easy to write it in the active and start with a boring phrase:

'EU leaders have agreed tough rules for the eurozone, aimed at averting another financial crisis.'

This is a great example of using the passive form to get key information at the start. What's more, the sub-clause (we are not normally fans of sub-clauses on the news website) works really well in the middle - "aimed at averting another financial crisis". That leaves the phrase you've heard and read a million times for the end - "EU leaders".

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