Active Voice
Active voice provides strength and directness. It more closely resembles spoken language — engaging and conversational. It eliminates unnecessary wording and improves the reader’s experience.
Passive voice can make writing seem long, thick and laborsome, as if your readers must chug through a swampy narrative to arrive at its meaning. Active voice provides clear, concise sentences to bring the most important information into focus.
To determine if you are writing in the passive voice, first identify the subject of the sentence. Then decide whether the subject is performing the action or being acted upon.
Examples
- Passive: The research was performed by the students.
- Active: The students performed the research. (object)
- Passive: Additional information can be obtained by readers on our website.
- Active: Readers can obtain additional information on our website.
Notice that passive voice increases the word count. If we write most of our sentences in passive voice, we risk increasing the length by 15-30 percent. We make our readers work harder to understand our meaning.
Passive Paragraph: The research was performed by the students. Measurements were taken by Ralph and Jim. The measurements were then compared to the simulations by Clara and Helen. Results were documents by their professor and these were submitted to an academic journal.
Active Paragraph: The students performed the research. Ralph and Jim took measurements. Clara and Helen compared these with the simulations. Their professor documented the results, and the team submitted these to an academic journal.
Keep in mind
There are times to use passive voice. These include emphasizing the action; to be tactful in not naming the actor; to describe a condition in which the actor is not known (ex. Every year, thousands of people are diagnosed with cancer.); to create a tone of authority (ex. Visitors are not allowed in the back.); or to keep a subject, rather than action, in consistent focus throughout a passage.