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Active versus Passive Voice
Active Voice means that the subject of the sentence is “active,” or
performing the action. Using active voice makes your writing more direct,
and since it usually uses fewer words than passive voice, it also makes your
writing more concise and easier to understand.
Ex. Mary
subject of
sentence
wrote
action of
sentence
a letter.
direct object
In this example, the subject of the sentence, “Mary,” is performing an
action.
Passive voice means that the subject of the sentence is acted upon. The
person or thing performing the action often appears in a phrase that starts
with by, and verbs require auxiliary verbs, such as be, have, or will, along
with the past participle of the main verb.
Ex. A letter was
subject of
sentence
auxiliary
verb
written
by Mary.
past participle
of main verb
prepositional
phrase
In this example, the subject of the sentence, “a letter,” is NOT performing
an action. The letter is not doing anything. Rather, the action, “writing,” is
being performed on it by Mary.
Most instances of passive voice can be easily changed to the active voice.
Look at the following examples.
Ex. The traffic jam was caused by an accident in the tunnel. (passive voice)
An accident in the tunnel caused the traffic jam. (active voice)
Ex. The reason she tripped was that her shoes were untied. (passive voice)
She tripped because she forgot to tie her shoes. (active voice)
Content from this handout is adapted from Troyka, Lynn Quitman. “Chapter 8: Verbs.”
Handbook for Writers. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Simon & Schuster, 2002. 205-207.