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Proofreading a website, it had a "List of Things I've Done" that went something like this:

  • Danced in the moonlight
  • Had a gun pointed at me
  • Ate Lutefisk

...etc.

The one that bothered me was the passive "had a gun pointed at me." That's not something you do, that's something you had done to you, or something you experienced.

I tried to explain this but I didn't do a great job so the author doesn't agree with me. Could someone help me explain it better?

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    I think you've explained it adequately right here. If they don't get it then that's their problem. The only thing you might do is suggest that whether or not they agree with the previous argument, do they agree that "Experiences I've had" works "equally" well here so "it wouldn't hurt to change it"
    – Jim
    Commented Sep 22, 2014 at 1:37
  • While this is strictly true, I'm not sure I'd make a big deal of it. Any way to rephrase it in active terms will likely be cumbersome. The intent is clear.
    – Barmar
    Commented Sep 22, 2014 at 20:44
  • I think possibly the reason the author doesn't agree with you is that your basic presumption is questionable at best. Having a gun pointed at you is not an active, willing act with you as the main actor; but it is something you ‘do’. Do is broader in meaning than just things where you are the agent and cause of the act. The tense mismatch is more problematic to me, and even that is on a very low level of jar.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jan 20, 2015 at 10:24

1 Answer 1

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How about:

  • Managed to contain myself while having a gun pointed at me.

That's an achievement. Unless you didn't actually manage to contain yourself.

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  • Or more simply "Avoided getting shot when someone pointed a gun at me"—though surely some credit goes to the person with the gun (or to that person's poor aim).
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Sep 22, 2014 at 8:41

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