writers.com tips:

Passive & Active Voice

"The difference between an active-verb style and a passive-verb style -- in clarity and vigor -- is the difference between life and death for a writer." -- William Zinsser

Sooner or later you are going to hear or read that active voice is preferred over passive voice in your writing. What does that mean?

The *voice* of a verb tells whether the subject of the sentence performs or receives the action. In English there are two voices, passive and active. In active voice, the subject performs the action expressed by the verb:
EX: The student wrote a story.

In passive voice, the subject receives the action expressed by the verb:
EX: A story was written by the student.

There's nothing grammatically incorrect in using passive voice instead of active. Passive voice is, however, considered weak, wimpy, and gets sand kicked in its face at the beach. Active verbs are more natural, direct, lively, and succinct. They are much more fun at a party. Passive voice has been accused of slowing down the pace of writing and making it "wordy." Sentences in passive voice can also be clumsy, awkward, and overly-complicated.

Weak, Passive: The bottle was slammed into the wall by Sherry.

Strong, Active: Sherry slammed the bottle into the wall.

Spin doctors, business people protecting their butts, bombastic academics, and military and political writers use passive voice to weasel out of taking direct responsibility. The phrase Ads for fruit-flavored alcoholic beverages were designed to appeal to the 12-to- 18-year-old demographic places the burden on the ads. We designed ads for fruit-flavored alcoholic beverages to appeal to children shows the "we" accepting responsibility. The board approved the budget (active) demonstrates who did what. The budget was approved by the board (passive) is less straightforward. The target was bombed into oblivion somehow makes it the target's fault it got bombed. We bombed the target to oblivion places culpability.

Passive voice *is* preferable when we need to draw attention to the object (person or thing) acted upon (The werewolf was killed by three silver bullets) or when the actor in the situation is not important (The eclipse can be observed at noon). Lab reports, scientific or technical writing often require the passive voice when the object (the process or principle being described) is more important than the subject important but the is of ultimate importance. Ten cc of acid is/was poured into the test tube rather than I poured 10 cc of acid into the test tube. we would write The passive voice can be used to point out the receiver of the action when the performer is unknown or unimportant (Your assignment will be posted) or when describing a course of action in which the details are more important than taking responsibility for the action: The drug is administered as soon as possible. And, of course, sometimes the writer intentionally wishes to avoid calling attention to the performer of the action (this is known as "institutional passive"), as in The contributions will be collected on Monday.

:: back to resources index ::

Copyright (c) 2005 Writers on the Net. This feature was originally published in "Writers.com," the monthly electronic newsletter of Writers on the Net. This publication may not be reproduced in print or posted elsewhere on the Web or used in any other fashion, in whole or in part, without written permission from Writers on the Net/Writers.com. Subscribe here or by emailing writers@writers.com.

home:about:classes:enroll:services:instructors:newsletter:tips:store