Voices:  Active and Passive

Generally speaking, writing that is vibrant, lively, and engaging has been crafted in what is known as the active voice.

The active voice is distinguished by the presense of a subject and a verb, as in the following:

• Martha dances.
• The sky flashes.
• Maurice gestures.
• The horse rears.

The passive voice "hides" the subject. Consider these examples:

• The window had been opened.
• The subject had been taught.
• The article was written.

A passive construction occurs when you make the object of an action into the subject of a sentence. Use of the passive voice, for all that it can introduce uncertainty and vagueness, as well as wordiness, into your writing, does not constitute a grammatical error. Although passive voice can detract from the clarity most writers seek, there are times when it is appropriate.
 
Passive voice can be effective when you want to avoid identifying the doer of an action, when the doer is unknown, or when the doer of the action is less important than the receiver of the action.

We might use the passive voice to admit:  "Mistakes have been made," rather than confess, "We made mistakes."
 
Regardless, the passive voice is a tool we rarely need. Always use the active voice unless there is a good reason not to.

Here are a few more examples:

A decision was reached to redesign the web site. = passive voice
The committee decided to redesign the web site. = active voice
 
Why was the article written by a student? = passive voice
Why did a student write the article? = active voice
 
The deployment of the system was successful. = passive voice
The team successfully deployed the system. = active
 
See if you can write an active voice sentence to replace each of the following three passive voice sentences.

• The software has been installed.
  
  (Hint:  The active voice will answer the question "by whom was the software installed?")
  
• The students have been evaluated.
  
• It is not considered an exceptional program.

If you have questions or comments about this topic, please feel free to contact the editor.

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