Active and passive voice
Active and passive voice are grammatical structures that illustrate the relationship between the subject and the action of a sentence. In active voice, the subject performs the action directly, making the sentence clear and straightforward, as exemplified by "Gretchen traveled to the city." Conversely, in passive voice, the subject is acted upon by the verb, leading to constructions like "The city was traveled to by Gretchen," which can often be more difficult for readers to understand. While active voice is generally preferred in most writing, particularly academic contexts, due to its clarity and conciseness, passive voice can be useful in certain situations. It allows writers to emphasize the action itself, obscure the agent's identity, or maintain a neutral tone, particularly in scientific writing. Despite its occasional appropriateness, passive voice is frequently viewed as less effective, and many writing guides encourage minimizing its use for clearer communication. Ultimately, the choice between active and passive voice should be guided by the context and intent of the writing.
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Active and passive voice
Active voice and passive voice represent different grammatical sentence structures that are dependent upon the relationship between the subject and the verb. In active voice, the subject directly performs the action conveyed by the verb. In passive voice, the subject is acted upon by the verb. Teachers and editors often view passive voice as a grammatical problem, as it can complicate readers’ comprehension of the sentence’s meaning. Here is an example of active voice: “Gretchen traveled to the city.” Rewritten, the same information can be conveyed in passive voice: “The city was traveled to by Gretchen.”
Overview
Generally preferred over passive voice, active voice clearly identifies the agent of the action in a sentence. Most academic writing values the use of active voice, as it enables the writer to be specific and thorough while discussing multiple authors, texts, characters, or theories. The use of active voice allows writers to convey meaning intelligibly and concisely. Sentences written in passive voice are often confusing, misleading, and verbose. Including both voices in the same sentence typically renders the sentence awkward and less comprehensible. However, there are some instances in which authors use passive voice rhetorically. In these cases, passive voice is an accepted convention.
When writers try to place emphasis on an object or person acted upon instead of the agent, they often use passive voice. The following sentence, for example, places emphasis on the action because the actor is unknown: “The rock carvings were made in the prehistoric era.” Passive voice is also employed when the writer wants to obscure who is responsible for the action. To describe a situation without revealing the identity of the agent, a writer might state, “Errors were made.” From this statement, it is unclear who made the errors.
Passive voice is also implemented when writers want to emphasize the subject more than the agent. In the following sentence, the writer focuses on ketchup rather than its inventor: “Ketchup was popularized in 1812 by the recipe published in The Virginia Housewife by James Mease.” Embraced more in scientific writing, passive voice helps to maintain a neutral tone in such data-centered research analysis. It is not unusual for the agent to be left out of the sentence in lab reports: “Salt was dissolved into the mixture. The mixture was then poured into the beaker.”
While there are some acceptable usages of passive voice, in most cases it should be avoided. Grammatical features of word processing software can be set to detect instances of passive voice, alerting the writer to possibly revise the sentence. Writers can also avoid using passive voice by stating the agent of the sentence first. Decisions regarding the use active or passive voice depend upon the nature and context of the writing. Because active voice is more direct, the use of this grammatical construction usually produces a stronger effect on a reader.
Bibliography
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