Impersonal report structures

IMPERSONAL REPORT STRUCTURES

Impersonal report structures are commonly found in reports and newspapers when we want to distance
ourselves from information which is not necessarily our opinion.

I. Reporting with The Passive:

1. it + passive + that-clause
e.g. It is believed that an assassination attempt was made on the president.
Other verbs used with this structure are: accept, agree, allege, claim, consider,
expect, feel, know, predict, say, suggest, think, understand.

2. subject + passive + infinitive
e.g. Knife crime is said to be on the increase in the western suburbs.
Other verbs used with this structure are: believe, consider, find, know, think.


practice!

http://random-idea-english.blogspot.com/2013/06/passive-reporting-structures.html
http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=6854
http://www.eltbase.com/quiz/077_01.htm