Department of English | University of Washington



Active Vs. Passive VoiceDefinition (from mnet.edu):Verbs are also said to be either active or passive in voice. In the active voice, the subject and verb relationship is straightforward: the subject is the actor of the sentence and the verb moves the sentence along. In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence is acted upon by some other agent or by something unnamed.In other words, in active voice, the subject is the be-er and the do-er of the sentence. In passive voice, the subject is not a be-er or a doer, but is the target of the action.ExamplesActive: I heard it through the grapevine.Passive: It was heard by me through the grapevine.Active: Robinson argues that schools need to account for student creativity.Passive: In Robinson’s talk it was argued that schools need to account for student creativity.Active: A CNN poll found that support for gay marriage is steadily growing. Passive: It was found that support for gay marriage is steadily growing. Active: I’ve never told this story to anyone before.Passive: This story has never been told before. Is passive voice always wrong? The short answer is: no. The use of passive voice is not a grammatical mistake or even necessarily a problem. Sometimes, like in the last example above, writers use passive voice deliberately because using an indirect expression is rhetorically effective. Also, scientific writing often uses passive voice because it allows writers to avoid using personal pronouns or the names of particular researchers. It’s simply important to be making the conscious choice between active and passive voice, so that if you use passive voice in your writing, you have a clear purpose for doing so. Here are the main reasons you may want to avoid passive voice: It can create awkward and/or unclear sentences (see the second example above).It can make your writing seem flat and uninteresting since it removes any strong, specific subject at the start of a sentence. It can undermine your authority as a writer if you don’t have a specific subject; it may seem like you have to be vague and general because you don’t know what you’re talking about (see the third example above). Some more adviceUsing active voice for the majority of your sentences keeps the sentences from becoming too complicated or wordy. Sentences written in active voice often require fewer words. You can recognize passive voice because the verb phrase will include a form of be (was, am, are, been, is). Don't assume that just because there is a form of 'be' that the sentence is passive, however. Sometimes a prepositional phrase like "by the" in the sentences above indicates that the action is performed on the subject, and that the sentence is passive.It’s good to avoid sentences that starts in active voice and then shifts to passive. For example: Many customers in the restaurant found the coffee too bitter to drink, but it was still ordered frequently.Additional ResourcesThe most helpful resource I used was the Purdue Owl Online Writing Lab. That site not only explains many grammar topics, but also provides tons of really useful examples of all different kinds. The second most helpful resource I used was the Grammar Girl’s Tips. I liked that she used very common examples of both active and passive voice, and some examples from pop culture too. I also appreciated that she discussed the use of passive voice as a rhetorical choice that can work well in certain writing situations.I also looked at the pages on active vs. passive voice in Acts of Inquiry, the old edition of the UW composition textbook, because it specifically references Tim O’brien’s use of active and passive voices in his creative writing. ................
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