Why is it important to use the active voice?* The dragon has been killed by the heroine. The boat has been destroyed by a hurricane. He left his job at the bank because his health began to fail. The reason he left his job at the bank was because his health began to fail. Note that in these examples, the sentences become shorter and more specific because active writing forces the writer to be clearer and more assertive. In an active sentence, the subject carries out the action of the verb, i.e., “Joseph (subject) ate (verb) the burrito.” In passive sentences, however, the subject no longer acts but is acted upon by the verb: “The burrito was eaten (verb) by Joseph (subject)” or “The burrito was eaten” (if the subject is unknown). A sentence like “a rock shattered the store’s window” is phrased in active voice-the subject is rock, the verb is shatter, and the object is window-though it might be derided as elusive because it avoids the question of who was the agent who propelled the rock that broke the glass.“Active voice” refers to the relationship between the subject and the verb of a sentence. “The lamp fell over” is active voice, but it feels like a passive statement because there is no obvious causative agent like Jerry in “Jerry knocked over the lamp.” There are other instances that technically count as active voice but nonetheless use language that dissociates the performer from the action being performed. Rebecca Traister Confusing Active and Passive Voice Active voice is for when a protester does? Got it. Passive voice is for when the state does violence. The passive voice gets called out on occasion as a tool for expressing the avoidance of responsibility, like when one says “Mistakes were made” rather than “We made some mistakes.” Sometimes, as in our Elm Street example, it is criticized for placing what appears to be a burden of responsibility on the person who receives the action (i.e., the victim) rather than the person who performs it. (Hence, “Arrest Made in Elm Street Attack.”) Even once an attacker has been identified, news writers might avoid the active voice for fear of stating what that person is accused of as fact. The reason for the passive is therefore practical: one might not know who carried out the attack, only that someone did, and that the attacker might still be at large. In many cases, especially in stories involving crime, the fact of the crime being committed, and whom it was committed against, is known before who committed it becomes clear. The passive voice allows for a shorter headline, but more pertinently, it puts up front information that is known. When news media reports on incidents of crime, for example, they will often use headlines that feature the passive voice: “Man (Is) Attacked on Elm Street” instead of “Person Attacks Man on Elm Street.” The differences between active and passive voice come up as a subject for discussion in criticism of news coverage. (There is also the mediopassive voice, which is a whole other animal that we discuss in this article.) In the News Passive voice: An old car was found in the woods.

Passive voice: The kitchen has been cleaned.Īctive voice: We found an old car in the woods. It is also helpful for instances when the doer of an action (also known as the agent) is unknown.Īctive voice: The kids have cleaned the kitchen. But it is useful for those instances when you want to emphasize the fact of an action having taken place rather than who performed the action. Passive voice often gets criticized as a weak and evasive form of expression. The passive voice is often distinguished by its use of a linking verb form (e.g., was, had been) followed by another verb in its past participle form (e.g., 'I have been given an opportunity'). Passive voice: The lamp was knocked over by Jerry.īoth sentences describe the same action taking place-Jerry making contact with a lamp and causing it to fall over-with the first sentence making Jerry the subject and the second making the lamp the subject. The passive voice makes the subject the person or thing acted on or affected by the action represented by the verb.Īctive voice: Jerry knocked over the lamp.

The active voice asserts that the person or thing represented by the grammatical subject performs the action represented by the verb. In English class, we are taught the difference between active and passive voice.

Writing in active voice