Utilizing an Active vs. Passive Voice in Your Writing

Lights, Camera, Action!

What makes a verb passive?

• Using any form of the verb to be will make your writing passive and usually, sluggish.

• Passive voice tends to make writing unclear.• Often, writers and speakers use passive voice

when they are hiding their own involvement in an event. Politicians love to use passive voice.

The Verb Form to be

• Be• Am• Are• Is• Was• Were• Being

• I will be…• I am…• We are…• This is…• She was…• They were…• This being…

Passive Voice

• A verb or sentence is passive, or in the passive voice, if someone or something other than the subject performs its actions.

• Remember, the subject of a complete sentence is a noun or pronoun.

• This noun or pronoun needs to perform the action (the verb) to make an active sentence.

A Passive Voice Example

The decision of the manager to bring about an end to the practice of overtime assignments and schedule the right number of workers in the first place was greeted with approval by a unanimous number of workers.

Here, the actual subject of the sentence is “decision” but the actual action that was performed, the greeting, was completed by the workers. The writer of the sentence robbed the workers of their status as the subject by using passive voice.

Same Thought in Active Voice

The manager decided to stop assigning overtime and to schedule the right number of workers in the first place. Workers unanimously approved the manager’s decision.

Even though the original sentence was split into two separate sentences, the subjects actually perform the action, making the voice active, clear and specific.

Active or Passive?

• At each concert, at least one Hannah Montana single was sung by Miley Cyrus.

• Large pools of oil will be removed from the Florida beach front by the willing volunteers.

• Cars 2 opened to the largest summer movie going audience of the 2011 blockbuster season.

• Remember, to stay in active voice, the subject of the sentence should be structured to highlight the doer of the action as the subject. (Note-the previous sentence utilizes passive voice.)

• Who sang? Miley Cyrus.• Who did the removing? The volunteers.• What opened? The movie.

Let’s Practice

• First, turn in your textbooks to page 112. Look at the four sample sentences written in passive voice. Revise each sentence so that it utilizes active voice.

• Now, let’s compose our own samples. With your teams, write a five sentence paragraph on a single topic in passive voice. Be ready to share your paragraphs.