Writing Lab Passive and Active Voice Voice Voice is the relationship of the subject to the verb The relationship can be either active (the subject does the action) or passive the subject receives the action) Active: the active voice walked
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Presentation Transcript
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Writing Lab Passive and Active Voice<br>
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Voice Voice is the relationship of the subject to the verb
The relationship can be either active (the subject does the action) or passive the subject receives the action)
Active: the active voice walked into the bar.
Passive: the bar was walked into by the passive voice.<br>
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Active or passive? Active voice and passive voice are both technically correct, but active voice is usually more effective in academic and professional writing because it is direct.
Passive voice is useful on certain occasions in which the subject of the sentence is either unknown or irrelevant:
The cruise liner was hijacked.<br>
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Spotting the passive voice Passive voice places the original subject of the sentence after verb in a prepositional phrase beginning with “by.”
Often, passive sentences omit the actor of the sentence altogether:
Research has been done to discredit this theory
Who did the research? Since the sentence is missing the actor, the actor could be anyone: you, a reliable source, or even zombies!
If you can add by zombies, you’re in passive voice.
Research has been done by zombies to discredit this theory.<br>
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Removing the passive voice To remove passive voice, locate the subject the zombies are standing in for and place it at the beginning of the sentence:
Original: Research has been done to discredit this theory.
Passive with zombies: Research has been done by zombies to discredit this theory.
Passive with subject: Research has been done by Smith et al. to discredit this theory.
Active: Smith et al. have done research to discredit this theory.<br>
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That’s all, folks! This lesson is part of the UWF Writing Lab Grammar Mini-Lesson Series
Lessons adapted from Real Good Grammar, Too by Mamie Webb Hixon
To find out more, visit the Writing Lab’s website where you can take a self-scoring quiz corresponding to this lesson<br>
