Passive & Active Voice

Advanced Curriculum Vocabulary

All researchers of written academic corpora comment on the fact that passive constructions are far more prevalent in the academic genre than in any other. The use of passive voice in formal writing has a number of important textual functions. Therefore, even though textbooks may not include much about passive, it is worth the time and energy to focus on it with students since it is used so often in academic prose.

  1. Four Reasons to Use the Passive in Research Writing
  2. Two Functions of Passive in Research Writing
  3. Common Passive Verbs in Academic Writing
  4. Verbs Almost Always in Active Voice
  5. By-Phrase with Passive
  6. Other Prepositions with Passive Verbs
  1. Four Reasons to Use the Passive in Research Writing

Passiveis especially common and useful in research writing, where omitting the agent of an action is effective for 4 reasons:

  1. Readers already know the agent (often the researchers)
  2. Using passive allows the object of the research be the subject of the sentence, giving more importance to it than the researchers.
  3. It contributes to sense of objectivity because human actions are not mentioned.
  4. It can be used to create more cohesion in the text.

2. Two Functions of Passive in Research Writing

Passive verbs commonly have 2 functions in research writing:

  1. Describing methods and analyses (be analyzed, be calculated, be carried out, be collected, be measured, be observed, be obtained, be prepared, be set, be tested, be used
  2. Reporting findings, or interpreting their meaning and connection with other research (be determined, be expected, be found, be seen, be shown, be associated with, be believed to be, can be interpreted as)

3. The Most Common Passive Verbs in Academic Writing

(in order of frequency)

made / seen / found / considered
given / used / done / shown

Other Academic Verbs Predominantly Used in the Passive Voice

(in alphabetical order; for all verbs: be (is/are/was/were) + the Past Participle)

achieveddeemedformedmeasured

aligned (with)definedgivenneeded

appliedderivedgrouped (with/by)noted

approveddescribedheldobserved

askeddesignedidentifiedobtained

associated (with)determinedillustratedperformed

attributed (to) discussedinclinedplotted

based (on)distributedintendedpositioned

borndocumentedintroducedprepared

broughtdrawninvolvedpresented

calculatedentitled (to) keptrecognized

calledestimatedknownregarded

carried examinedlabeledrelated (to)

chosenexpectedleftreplaced

classified (as)explainedlimited (to)reported

compared expressedlinked (to/with)represented

composed (of)extractedlocated (at/in)required

coupled (with)flatteredlostsaid

situatedsubjected (to)transferredviewed

storedthoughttreated

studiedtoldunderstood

4. Verbs that are always (or almost always) used in the Active Voice:

appearconsisthappenlast resemble stayarrive

comefalloccurrest wait belong

dielackremainseem

5. By-Phrase with Passive

A vast majority of passive sentences in formal academic writing do not include the by-phrase.

The by-phrase is used with the passive for 3 reasons:

  1. The agent noun-phrase is long.
  2. The agent is NEW information.
  3. The main verb belongs to a special group of verbs that are often used with non-human by-phrases.

The by-passive is especially common with particular verbs in academic writing. These verbs are special because they by-phrase usually identifies a kind of data or evidence, rather than a human agent. (Ex. The amount of profit in the economy is determined by the amount of surplus value…)

Passive Voice Verbs that Commonly Occur with a Non-Human By-Phrase in Academic Writing (in alphabetical order)

Darby Smith and Monika Mulder, Winter 2011

Passive & Active Voice

Advanced Curriculum Vocabulary

  • be accompanied by
  • be caused by
  • be characterized by
  • be confirmed by
  • be defined by
  • be described by
  • be determined by
  • be explained by
  • be found by
  • be given by
  • be illustrated by
  • be influenced by
  • be measured by
  • be obtained by
  • be replaced by
  • be represented by
  • be shown by
  • be supported by

Darby Smith and Monika Mulder, Winter 2011

Passive & Active Voice

Advanced Curriculum Vocabulary

6. Other Prepositions with Passive Verbs

Passive verb + preposition combinations fulfill important functions for writing. These are four of the most common functions and their most common combinations:

Function / Passive Verb + Preposition
identifying places within texts and physical locations / be found in be shown in
classifying, naming, defining / be classified as be known as
be referred to as
connecting ideas, data, conclusions / be associated with be based on
be related to
identifying uses, applications / be applied to be used in

Here are the verbs above and more common ones (organized by preposition collocate):

Preposition / Common Passive Verb + Preposition Combinations
as / be classified as
be considered as
be defined as
be known as
be referred as
be regarded as
in / be found in
be included in
be involved in
be shown in
be used in
to / be applied to
be attributed to
be confined to
be linked to
be related to
Other prepositions / be associated with
be based on
be composed of
be derived from
be required for
be used for

Darby Smith and Monika Mulder, Winter 2011