Active/Passive Voice
The English language has two voices—active voice and passive voice.
Both terms refer to the use of verbs. Active voice is direct, vigorous,
strong; passive voice is indirect, limp, weak, and—sneaky.
Active voice: Dan opened the bag.
Dan is the subject of the sentence, and Dan acted. He did
something—he opened. The verb shows him in action. Any other
sentence with an active verb could demonstrate the same principle: Rachel cheated.
Chris skated. Mollie interrupted. Jamie tripped. Whenever a verb
shows the subject of a sentence doing something, the sentence is in
active voice.
Passive voice: The bag was opened by Dan.
In this sentence, the subject is bag. But the bag is doing nothing at
all. It is having something done to it.
The passive voice differs from the active voice in three ways:
1. The subject expresses the goal of the action.
2. A form of the verb be precedes a verb in its past participle
form.
3. The agent of the action appears after the verb in a “by-phrase”
(but it may also be dropped).
Bells were rung, horns were blown, confetti was thrown from every
office window, and embraces were exchanged by total strangers. (Passive Voice)
Bells rang, horns tooted, confetti streamed from every office window, and total strangers threw their arms around each other. (Active Voice)
The chief weakness of passive voice is its anonymity. It could almost be called the “nobody” voice: it is used by politicians to escape blame (“Mistakes were made.”).
The room was cleaned. The room was cleaned by Daniela.
The flowers were cut. The flowers were cut by Josh.
The lights were turned on. The lights were turned on by Marcos.
Because of the anonymity of this style of sentence, the writer is tempted to include or tag on a name at the end of it. This may help the writer’s conscience, but it doesn’t help his writing. Despite adding the names, the subjects are still not acting; each is accepting whatever the rest of the sentence chooses to dish out. That’s boring and
makes for boring, uninteresting writing.
A good way to handle passive voice is to cut off the end of this kind of sentence and switch it around entirely.
Daniela cleaned the room. Josh cut the flowers. Marcos turned on
the lights.
When to use the passive voice:
Use the passive voice sparingly. Avoid weak and awkward passives in the
interest of variety, avoid long passages in which all the verbs are
passive. Although this rule is generally true, there are a few
situations where the passive voice is particularly useful.
1. Use the passive voice to express an action in which the actor is
unknown:
An anonymous letter was sent to the police chief.
2. Use the passive voice to express an action in which it is
desirable not to disclose the actor.
The missing painting has been returned to the museum.
3. Choose the passive when you don’t know who did it, your readers
don’t care who did it, or you don’t want them to know who did it.
Because the inspection was not done, the flaw was left uncorrected, a fact
that was known months before it was leaked to the press.
Sometimes the passive voice is more convenient, and just as appropriate, as the active voice. In the following sentences, the passive voice is completely acceptable and probably more natural.
Penicillin, a modern wonder drug, was discovered accidentally.
The person who was standing near the entrance was asked to close the door.
The top player was eliminated in the first round.
4. Writing a summary using the active voice.
5. The “objective” passive is often used in the sciences. It
contributes to an objective point of view.
The subjects were divided into a high- or low-ability group. Half of each group was randomly assigned to a treatment group or a placebo group.
Whenever possible, you should write in the active voice. The active
voice is usually more direct, more vigorous, and more concise than
the passive voice.
The students made a contribution. (direct and concise)
A contribution was made by the students. (indirect,
>awkward,
and wordy)
However, the passive voice is useful in situations in which the
performer of the action is unknown or unimportant.
On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
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