You will notice that in many tools when writing content online make you steer away from passive voice but when you’re reading other people’s work, you get used to passive voice. In contrast, passive voice uses a form of the verb “to be” to shift emphasis with no agent (person or thing) acting as the performer of an action. If your professor or a classmate tells you to work on your passive/active voice, come see me or one of my colleagues in the Writing Center.Active voice is a sentence construction in which the subject is performing the action of a verb. I hope you have a better understanding of the difference between passive and active voice, and when it’s appropriate to use both. Make that agent the subject of the sentence, and change the verb accordingly.” To change from passive to active, “consider carefully who or what is performing the action expressed in the verb. An opportunity is thus created for the introduction of obscure, pompous words and convoluted phraseology.” There’s specific circumstances when you need to use an active voice. As Porter says, with passive writing “ the writer is forced to construct longer sentences than might be required by the active voice. One downfall of passive writing is that the sentence can get complicated. ![]() It’s not necessary to know who’s notifying the police it only matters they’ve been notified. In this scenario, the passive sentence is the better option. ![]() ![]() Police are being notified that three prisoners have escaped. The dispatcher is notifying police that three prisoners have escaped. Purdue Owl says, “passive voice makes sense when the agent performing the action is obvious, unimportant, or unknown or when a writer wishes to postpone mentioning the agent until the last part of the sentence or to avoid mentioning the agent at all.” Purdue Owl explains two occasions when passive voice can be the better option: Sometimes, passive voice is the better option. Here’s an example of passive voice for a scientific report: “Samples were collected from six counties by our research team.” It’s not necessary here to put the subject first because it doesn’t matter who collected the samples it only matters if they were collected. In fact, it’s encouraged throughout scientific genres and composition. It’s important to note that passive voice isn’t always bad. As the younger sister I am, I like to think about active voice as assigning blame to someone or something. So, the sentence could be modified to: I broke your glasses. To change this example sentence to an active one, we need to add a subject to act on our verb. We don’t know how the glasses were broken or who broke them, but we do know it’s not possible for glasses to break themselves–resulting in a passive sentence. ![]() In a passive sentence, the subject is acted upon by the verb. Let’s start by making sure we’re clear on what passive and active voice is. This post will discuss the differences between active and passive voice, and help you avoid confusion in your own writing. If you can relate to this, then you’ve come to the right place. Have you ever been told to change your writing from passive to active? I know I have, and I also know this can be a frustrating comment to receive if you aren’t sure what the difference is between passive and active voice. I’m majoring in English Literature, and I have experience with blogging, creative writing, and professional writing. Hi, I’m Ellie Banfield, a class of 2024 Writing Consultant. Posted on: Ma| By: mbassett3 | Filed under: Visiting The Writing Center, Writing Process
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