Active voice versus passive voice
April 4th 2009 03:09
If you've ever taken a high school composition class, you are probably familiar with the notion of active voice versus passive voice. Specifically, you have likely been told that active voice is preferable to the passive, but you might not be aware of the reasons why. First, you must understand how to distinguish between the two.
Active voice is when the subject ("I") of a sentence acts upon the object (the cake):
"I baked my parents' anniversary cake."
Passive voice is when the object acts on the subject:
"My parents' anniversary cake was baked by me."
Note that the part in italics, baked by, makes the sentence longer and a bit awkward. Indeed, the "[verb] by" construction is a dead giveaway that the sentence is passive.
Here is another example:
Active voice -- "My sister and I gave them a special memory book."
Passive voice (where "my sister and I", who perform the action, are omitted) -- "They were given a special memory book."
Using the active voice is concise, direct, and ensures that your meaning is clear. Writing in the active voice also creates an economy of style; how many pages of Hemingway do you think you must read before you come across a passive sentence? (Answer: I don't know. I had to put the book down because it was taking too long to find one.)
An interesting thing to note is that in some types of writing, passive voice is preferred. Technical writers, for example, may employ the passive voice in order to avoid identifying a subject. See this article at "The Passive Engineer" for more on this topic.
Active voice is when the subject ("I") of a sentence acts upon the object (the cake):
"I baked my parents' anniversary cake."
Passive voice is when the object acts on the subject:
"My parents' anniversary cake was baked by me."
Note that the part in italics, baked by, makes the sentence longer and a bit awkward. Indeed, the "[verb] by" construction is a dead giveaway that the sentence is passive.
Here is another example:
Active voice -- "My sister and I gave them a special memory book."
Passive voice (where "my sister and I", who perform the action, are omitted) -- "They were given a special memory book."
Using the active voice is concise, direct, and ensures that your meaning is clear. Writing in the active voice also creates an economy of style; how many pages of Hemingway do you think you must read before you come across a passive sentence? (Answer: I don't know. I had to put the book down because it was taking too long to find one.)
An interesting thing to note is that in some types of writing, passive voice is preferred. Technical writers, for example, may employ the passive voice in order to avoid identifying a subject. See this article at "The Passive Engineer" for more on this topic.
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