Passive vs. Active Voice Engl 2311 Copyright 2012 Art Fricke.

Passive vs. Active Voice

Engl 2311

Copyright 2012 Art Fricke

What is “voice”and why should you care?

Some detailed explanation for what grammatical “voice” is, why y’all often use awkward passive voice sentences, and how to edit this effectively.

This slideshow will help you if:You get a lot of “awk” or especially “awk pass” comments on your writing.


ACTIVE and PASSIVE Voice

“Voice” indicates the relation of the subject to the action of the verb

SomeTHING is ACTING on someTHING

SUBJECT / ACTION / OBJECT Jack Bauer defeated the evil

president.

Voice can be active or passive


In active voice:

The subject is CLEARLY doing the action The subject is emphasized more than the object The subject MUST be stated

Ex:

The students listened carefully to the lecture.


In passive voice:

The subject sounds like it is being acted upon The subject takes a back seat to the object The object MUST be stated

Ex:

The lecture was listened to carefully by the students.


Some more examples:

Active

Jack defeated the evil President.Subject: Jack

Necessary to the action: HECK YES!

Passive

The evil President was defeated by Jack.Subject: Jack

Necessary to the action: not really


How to identify ACTIVE & PASSIVE voice

1. Find the main action in the sentence

2. Find the main subject that’s doing the main action

No main subject? The sentence is passive voice!

3. Cut out the main subject and read out loud

Complete sentence? The sentence is passive voice!Incomplete sentence? The sentence is active voice!


WHYpassive voice is awkward

Passive NOT GOOD for emphasizing subjectThe terrorist threat was defeated. (by Jack).

Passive generally makes writing LESS CLEARJack Bauer shouldn’t be threatened. (by what?)

One shouldn’t threaten Jack Bauer. (“one”=who?)

The evil president shouldn’t threaten Jack. (A-HA!)


When to use which voice?

To emphasize the performer (subject) of the action, USE ACTIVE VOICE.

To write in everyday conversational language, USE ACTIVE VOICE.

To hide the performer (subject) of the action or to emphasize the receiver (object) of the action, use the passive voice.


Rule of Thumb

Generally, always use ACTIVE VOICE

active voice conveys MORE INFORMATIONactive voice uses FEWER WORDS

active voice is HOW PEOPLE NORMALLY TALK

ONLY use passive voice for a VERY GOOD reason

for ex, if you want to DE-EMPHASIZE, HIDE, or DON’T KNOW information


ONE reason to use PASSIVE voice:

Reason #1

You want to emphasize the object (receiver) of the action more than the performer.

Example: Kristen was presented with an award. (by the president.)

The president presented Kristen with an award.


TWO reason to use PASSIVE voice:

Reason #2

You want to hide the subject (performer) of the action.

Example:

The cable was broken. (by our group of engineers.)

Our group of engineers broke the cable.


THREE reason to use PASSIVE voice:

Reason #3

You simply don’t know who the performer is or was.

Example:The cave was discovered in 1929.

Someone discovered the cave in 1929.


Practice

Change these to the opposite voice:

1. The “Bauer 9i” program was released by Oracle today.

2. The test was failed by half the engineering students.


Practice

Change these to the opposite voice:

1. The instructor wrote the lecture.

2. The president reported that the weapons were not found.


Passive vs. Active Voice Engl 2311 Copyright 2012 Art Fricke.

Documents

Transcript of Passive vs. Active Voice Engl 2311 Copyright 2012 Art Fricke.