using passive voice in essays

Active and Passive VoiceUsing Active Versus Passive Voice In a sentence using active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action expressed in the verb. Image Caption: The arrow points from the subject performing the action (the dog) to the individual being acted upon (the boy). This is an example of a sentence using the active voice. Image Caption: Sample active voice sentence with the subject performing the action described by the verb. Image Caption: The active voice sentence subject (watching a framed, mobile world) performs the action of reminding the speaker of something. Each example above includes a sentence subject performing the action expressed by the verb. View examples of verb tenses active voice. Active Versus Passive VoiceActive voice is used for most non-scientific writing. Using active voice for the majority of your sentences makes your meaning clear for readers, and keeps the sentences from becoming too complicated or wordy. Even in scientific writing, too much use of passive voice can cloud the meaning of your sentences. Image Caption: The action is performed upon the sentence subject, meaning this sentence is passive (indirect). Image Caption: This is an example of the active voice because the sentence subject performs the action. Image Caption: This is an example of the passive voice. Image Caption: This is an example of an active voice sentence because the sentence subject performs the action. Image Caption: This is an example of the passive voice. Image Caption: This is an example of an active voice sentence because its subject performs the action expressed in the verb. Sentences in active voice are also more concise than those in passive voice because fewer words are required to express action in active voice than in passive. Image Caption: This passive voice sentence is less concise than its active voice counterpart (shown below).
Rebecca Johnson you’re a genius. Teachers everywhere should rejoice, and so should any students who haven’t yet mastered passive voice. If you’re still new to this and aren’t sure how passive voice works or why Rebecca’s work-around is so boo-tiful, let us explain. Passive Voice Odds are high that you have, at some point in your life, had passive voice marked on an essay or piece of writing. Odds are higher that you probably had no idea what in the world that meant. Basically, it is this. Passive voice is when the noun being acted upon is made the subject of the sentence. (Active voice is when the noun doing the action is the subject.) Let me explain with an example. “The house was haunted.” “The house” is the noun being acted upon, in other words “house” is the object of the verb “to haunt”. It’s clear here that the house is not doing the haunting. It is not doing the action. It is receiving the action. However, it is the subject of the sentence, which makes this sentence a passive voice sentence. (In an active voice sentence, the noun performing the action should be the subject. In this case, the active voice version would be: “Ghosts haunted the house.”) Using “by zombies” to help identify passive voice If you are still having trouble understanding passive voice, here is where Rebecca’s idea can help. Usually (but not always), passive voice can include the actor, usually following the verb. Basically, if you can add “by zombies” after the verb and it makes sense, you probably have passive voice. “The town was attacked (by zombies).” Yes, this makes sense; therefore, it is a passive voice sentence. To make this sentence active, you will need to put the noun doing the action in the subject location of the sentence. That is: “Zombies attacked the town.” Now we can check for passive voice: “Zombies attacked the town (by zombies).” No, this doesn’t make sense;.
When should an author choose the passive voice over the active voice? What is the difference between them? The passive voice emphasizes the person or object receiving the action (e.g., Samples were analyzed). The active voice, in contrast, emphasizes the person or object performing the action (e.g., We analyzed samples). Because active-voice sentences are clearer, livelier, and often more concise than passive-voice sentences, most style guides advise scientific authors to prefer the active voice in their writing. Notice though, that the recommendation is not to write entirely in the active voice. An all-out active writing style would be just as difficult to read as an all-out passive style: balancing the two perspectives is key.Other than to add variety, when is the passive voice the better choice? Here are three good reasons to use it. 1. The performer is unknown, irrelevant, or obviousThe passive voice is preferable if the performer cannot easily be named or if the performer is irrelevant to the discussion, as in the following examples:Up to 90% of the energy in light bulbs is wasted in the form of heat.The first edition of Freud's earliest writings on dreams was published in 1899.Drosophila melanogaster has been one of the most extensively studied species in genetics research.In the first sentence, the author's attempts to name the performer would be awkward; in the second sentence, the author assumes the reader will not be interested in the name of the publisher; and in the third sentence, the performer (researchers) is obvious. When naming the performer would prove difficult or unnecessary, the passive voice works well. 2. The performer is less important than the actionWhen discussing an experimental procedure in the Methods section, a researcher might write: The honey bees were kept in a humidified chamber at room temperature overnight.The solution was heated.
Printable PDF Version Fair-Use Policy What is passive voice? In English, all sentences are in either active or passive voice: active: Werner Heisenberg formulated the uncertainty principle in 1927. passive: The uncertainty principle was formulated by Werner Heisenberg in 1927. In an active sentence, the person or thing responsible for the action in the sentence comes first. In a passive sentence, the person or thing acted on comes first, and the actor is added at the end, introduced with the preposition by. The passive form of the verb is signaled by a form of to be : in the sentence above, was formulated is in passive voice while formulated is in active. In a passive sentence, we often omit the actor completely: The uncertainty principle was formulated in 1927. When do I use passive voice? In some sentences, passive voice can be perfectly acceptable. You might use it in the following cases: The actor is unknown: The cave paintings of Lascaux were made in the Upper Old Stone Age. [We don't know who made them.] The actor is irrelevant: An experimental solar power plant will be built in the Australian desert. [We are not interested in who is building it.] You want to be vague about who is responsible: Mistakes were made. [Common in bureaucratic writing!] You are talking about a general truth: Rules are made to be broken. [By whomever, whenever.] You want to emphasize the person or thing acted on. For example, it may be your main topic: Insulin was first discovered in 1921 by researchers at the University of Toronto. It is still the only treatment available for diabetes. You are writing in a scientific genre that traditionally relies on passive voice. Passive voice is often preferred in lab reports and scientific research papers, most notably in the Materials and Methods section: The sodium hydroxide was dissolved in water. This solution was then titrated with.