Most elements of grammar are fairly easy to understand. If you are a native English speaker, you have been drilled on pretty much everything from the time you started to write. One thing that requires a little more thought, or maybe, re-training, is the active and passive voice in writing. Without further ado, we discuss passive v. active voice.
Passive v. Active Voice
Passive
Passive voice is either when the thing being acted on is at the end of the sentence, or is unknown. A passive voice sentence example is:
- The milk was spilled. Or
- The milk was spilled by Charlie.
Passive voice gets what I would call “guff.” However, a lot of the time in academic settings, you will find yourself with a requirement to write an essay or paper without coloring it with a view. You will be asked (or maybe have been asked) to present facts and ideas, but not show those facts and ideas as your own. In these areas, and also writing articles that are journalistic in nature, it is important to take the actor out of the action, so to speak. Maybe it’s for reasons of anonymity, or maybe it’s so that the writing can speak for itself. Either of these reasons would cause the writer of the piece to choose to use a more passive voice.
Active
When using an active voice, the person or people doing the action are at the beginning of the sentence. An example of active voice would be:
- Charlie spilled the milk.
This is the type of writing that writers are constantly told to use. In fact, even in writing a blog post, I have a plugin that tells me when I use too much passive voice. I personally think that passive voice can be used with great effect. You could even show a character coming into themselves, simply by thinking passively, and then actively. For example, if at the beginning of the story, they always put themselves at the very end. But, then by the end, they thought of themselves first. That change in voice, could be used to great effect, subtle, but great. The reader may not catch on at first, but they would get it. Even subconsciously.
At the end of the day, passive voice = actor at the end, action in the beginning, active voice = actor in the beginning, action at the end. Easy enough to remember. Keep track of what you are using, or even just be aware of it when you are editing.
Thanks for reading this post about passive v. active voice.