{"id":39013,"date":"2020-03-03T10:46:36","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T15:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/?p=39013"},"modified":"2023-08-15T16:53:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T20:53:10","slug":"passive-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/?p=39013","title":{"rendered":"Your Grade School Teachers Were Right: Avoid Using the Passive Voice \u2014 Here\u2019s Why"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even as a full-time freelance writer, I have to admit: I don\u2019t remember much of the grammar lessons I learned in grade school.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But when writing is your bread and butter (or even just your primary hobby), figuring out the most salient points of usage takes on a new importance \u2014 or, at least, feels more important than figuring it out just to pass a pop quiz.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chances are at least one of your teachers drilled the idea that passive voice is bad into your head.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But why did they do that? Is it that bad, really? And, with however many years separating you from your classroom experience, do you even know how to identify passive voice in the first place anymore?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s take a quick, pain-and-pop-quiz-free review of this peculiar type of sentence construction.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper\" id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21\"><span class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21\" id=\"hs-cta-f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21\"><!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]--><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/4208601\/f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img\" id=\"hs-cta-img-f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21\" style=\"border-width:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/4208601\/f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21.png\"  alt=\"New call-to-action\"\/><\/a><\/span><script charset=\"utf-8\" src=\"https:\/\/js.hscta.net\/cta\/current.js\"><\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> hbspt.cta.load(4208601, 'f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21', {\"useNewLoader\":\"true\",\"region\":\"na1\"}); <\/script><\/span><!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code -->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is passive voice?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The passive voice is a type of sentence construction wherein the subject and object switch places: rather than the subject acting on the object, the object of the action becomes, itself, the subject.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It sounds complicated, but you\u2019ve definitely seen it used \u2014 and more than likely used it yourself without even thinking about it. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One common way the passive voice is employed (and thus an easy red flag to look for when trying to identify it in your own writing) is the use of some form of \u201cto be\u201d verb plus a past participle. For example:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The paper had been written when I was young and inexperienced.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(An active voice version of that idea might read: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I wrote the paper when I was young and inexperienced.)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, not all sentences that use \u201cto be\u201d verbs or past participles are passive! For example, all of the following sentences are in the active voice:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I had been writing all night long, but I wasn\u2019t getting anywhere.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have to submit my manuscript by tomorrow!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He had gone to his editor more than once about it.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cTo be\u201d verbs and participles aside, the most conclusive way to figure out whether or not a sentence is in the passive voice is to identify the subject, verb, and \u2014 if there is one \u2014 the object of the action. <strong>If the object of the action is in the front of the sentence and the subject is at the end, you\u2019ve got yourself an example of passive voice.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another example:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b>PASSIVE VOICE: <\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The book was written by my best friend, Elizabeth.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b>ACTIVE VOICE: <\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My best friend Elizabeth wrote the book.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why is the passive voice wrong?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As discussed above, the last time you talked about the passive voice was probably in the context of being told, by some well-meaning teacher, that it\u2019s incorrect.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So let\u2019s be totally clear: <\/span><b>the passive voice isn\u2019t <\/b><b><i>wrong<\/i><\/b><b>, exactly<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. But it\u2019s usually a lot clunkier than an active sentence construction.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using the passive voice distances the subject from the action of the sentence, which leads to less clarity and urgency. It can also add unnecessary words to your manuscript, since the passive voice generally requires more auxiliary verbs than the active voice does. You need a lot more space to say <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ball had been kicked by me<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> than to say <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I kicked the ball<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That said, there may be times when you want to employ the passive voice to purposefully draw emphasis to the object of an action \u2014 or the fact that the object is, in fact, being treated as an object.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, Writer Constance Hale argues that Germaine Greer, in writing \u201cThe Female Eunuch,\u201d uses the passive voice \u201c to emphasize that a subject is not a \u2018doer\u2019 but a \u2018done-to\u2019 over at the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com\/2012\/04\/30\/the-pleasures-and-perils-of-the-passive\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New York Times<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Here\u2019s Greer\u2019s passage with the passive portion bolded:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The married woman\u2019s significance can only be conferred by the presence of a man at her side, a man upon whom she absolutely depends. <\/span><b>In return for renouncing, collaborating, adapting, identifying, she is caressed, desired, handled, influenced.<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When in doubt, however \u2014 and especially if you\u2019re still working to understand exactly what the passive voice is \u2014 it\u2019s usually a good rule of thumb to avoid it.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to use less passive voice in your writing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that we\u2019ve covered how to discern between passive vs. active voice and why the passive voice can be so problematic, you may be wondering how to fix or avoid it in your own writing practice.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And to be honest, like most things in the writing world \u2014 and in the whole world, as a matter of fact \u2014 a lot of it comes down to plain old practice. As you continue to write, take time to review your work specifically for instances of passive voice usage and change the sentences to active voice when you see them. Over time, using the active voice will become second nature.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, everyone needs some help along the way. Fortunately, we\u2019ve come across some <a href=\"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/automatic-editing-tools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">grammar checker tools<\/a> that include a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">passive voice checker<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> amongst their suite of goodies \u2014 and although premium versions of those programs cost, many offer a free edition.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Armed with this knowledge of passive voice, go forth and do some writing\u2026as opposed to letting your writing do you!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo via Prostock-studio \/ <a data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/photos&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1583336724569000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEgoukxBbT1iXYgO-91pAXk3BvKzQ\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/photos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shutterstock<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper\" id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21\"><span class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21\" id=\"hs-cta-f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21\"><!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]--><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/4208601\/f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img\" id=\"hs-cta-img-f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21\" style=\"border-width:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/4208601\/f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21.png\"  alt=\"New call-to-action\"\/><\/a><\/span><script charset=\"utf-8\" src=\"https:\/\/js.hscta.net\/cta\/current.js\"><\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> hbspt.cta.load(4208601, 'f0897aa4-e8f4-4edb-b8c1-48bf47b7bc21', {\"useNewLoader\":\"true\",\"region\":\"na1\"}); <\/script><\/span><!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve likely heard before that you shouldn\u2019t use the passive voice. But why? In this piece, we explain the reason &#8212; plus how to use it less. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":272,"featured_media":39016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-craft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}