Voice: Active or Passive?
...ce makes for weak prose. People are active, and we think it natural to read a sentence about a logger who felled a tree, but it puzzles us to read that the tree was felled by a logger. 2. Active voice is more vigorous than passive. Active: Failing health compelled her to leave college. Passive: The reason she left college was that her health had failed. 3. Passive voice is confusing, especially in sentences like this: Passive: A survey was made by the Ministry of Health of the nursing staff at Mount Sinai Hospital. Who is doing what, in that sentence? In the active voice, all doubts are removed: Active: The Ministry of Health surveyed the nursing staff at Mount Sinai Hospital. 4. Passive voice adds length to writing. Look back at the samples. In each case the sentence written in active voice is shorter than the one in passive voice. Brevity is a by-product of writing in active voice. 5. Passive voice is regarded as more formal and less personal and friendly than active voice. Consider: Passive: This information is being forwarded to you because management is concerned about your welfare. Active: We are telling you this because we care about your well-being. The case for passive A controlled use of passive voice can add variety and emphasis to your writing. 1. Passive voice can be used to move the important element to the front of the sentence, where it will receive initial emphasis and catch the reader's eye. Any employee who violates this rule will be discharged. The Prime Minister was bitten by a dog. 2. The passive voice is often used when the originator or performer of the action is hard to identify or not to be named. Some of his brain cells were damag...