Mastering the Passive Voice
Student: Hey, I've been using the spelling, grammar and style checker like you suggested.Teacher: Great. Has it helped?
Student: Yeah, but I'm confused about one thing that keeps getting flagged, passive voice. The checker says to "consider rewriting." What the heck is the passive voice and why should I change it?
Teacher: Passive voice just means that the subject of the sentence is being acted upon--thus it is passive--instead of doing the action. Here's a quick example: "The defendant was declared not guilty by the jury." Who performed the action in the sentence? Who declared the defendant not guilty?
Student: The jury!
Teacher: Right. And does the word jury come before or after the verb, “declared”?
Student: After. All the way at the end, actually.
Teacher: Exactly. "Defendant," the subject, is being acted upon, instead of doing the action. That's why it's called passive. Here's another example: "The cabin was destroyed by a tornado." Is the subject, cabin, acting or being acted upon?
Student: Well, it was destroyed by the tornado, so it’s being acted upon.
Teacher: Right. Both sentences are in the passive voice because the subjects are quote "passive"--they are being acted upon.
Changing Passive to Active
Student: Makes sense. So what's the opposite of the passive voice? Active voice?
Teacher: Yes, as a matter of fact it is. Very good.
Student: What the difference?
Teacher: For the active voice, all you do is flip-flop the two parts of the sentence and revise. So instead of the passive voice "The defendant was declared not guilty by the jury," you make “jury” the subject or doer of the action, use a simple tense, and delete by. You get active voice: "The jury declared the defendant not guilty."
Student: I think I got it.
Teacher: OK, Let's check. Change our other example into the active voice: "The cabin was destroyed by a tornado."
Student: Well, like you said, flip flop cabin and tornado. So it would be, let's see, "A tornado was destroyed by the cabin"?? Wait, that's not right.
Teacher: Remember to revise--simplfy the verb and delete "by."
Student: Right, right. So it should be: “A tornado destroyed the cabin."
Teacher: Perfect! You've changed a passive voice sentence into active voice by reversing the subject and revising to fit. I think you've got it.
The Awkward Passive
Student: Good, I guess. But I still don't understand why the passive gets flagged by the style checker. I mean, I hear sentences like "The jury found the defendant not guilty" all the time. What's wrong with it?
Teacher: Nothing. That's why the style checker only suggests you consider revising. The active voice and the passive voice are both parts of our language, and both play a role in our writing.
Student: OK, so why the squiggly green lines and the warnings?
Teacher: Because like almost anything we do in writing, the passive voice can be used correctly or incorrectly.
Student: How do I know if I'm doing it right or wrong?
Teacher: Good question. A passive voice sentence emphasizes the receiver of the action instead of the doer. Sometimes that can be the wrong emphasis, depending on the meaning of the sentence. Look at this example: "Stop! was shouted by the bank guard.” Now, it's possible to imagine a scenario where that passive voice construction is appropriate. Let's say, you're in a courtroom, the judge asks, "Please tell the court who shouted "stop." And you might reply, "Stop! was shouted by the bank guard, your Honor." But in most other situations, you would use the active voice.
Student: For sure. Normally, you'd say: The bank guard shouted "Stop!" You're describing quick actions.
Teacher: Very good.
Choosing Between Passive and Active
Student: But sometimes when the passive voice was flagged in my papers, I was writing about ideas, not actions.
Teacher: Do you remember an example?
Student: Yeah, in my history paper about World War II, I wrote that Americans of Japanese descent were rounded up and put in internment camps. And it was flagged as passive. Should I change it to active?
Teacher: Let's see what the options are. Look first at this sentence: "The parade was cancelled due to rain." Who cancelled the parade?
Student: The officials or whoever was in charge.
Teacher: Right. But these officials who called off the parade, they weren't even named in the sentence. They were only implied. Is that a problem?
Student: Hmmm. No, I don't think it matters. You would just figure that whoever was in charge did it. There really wasn't a need to mention them.
Teacher: Good. Now let's apply that same logic to your sentence: "During World War II, Americans of Japanese descent were rounded up and put internment camps." According to the sentence, these Japanese-Americans were rounded up by whom?
Student: It doesn't say. It's a passive voice sentence without the "by."
Teacher: Take a guess. Who do you think did it?
Student: Solidiers, police, whoever was told to.
Teacher: So, the emphasis on the action done to the Japanese-Americans. Should we change the sentence to active voice to emphasize the soldiers and police who did it?
Student: No, I want the emphasis on what was done to these people; they were Americans too. I want to leave it passive.
Teacher: You’re exactly right. This is a perfect time to use the passive voice and you shouldn’t change it.
A Matter of Responsibility
Teacher: Now, pretend you read this sentence in a newspaper: "Last month over 100 innocent Pakistani civilians were killed in the war against the Taliban." Who killed the innocent Pakistanis?
Student: The sentence doesn't say. Actually, it avoids saying who was responsible. That doesn't seem right.
Teacher: And that's another time when the passive voice should not be used--to avoid assigning responsibility.
Student: I think I've got it. Sometimes the doer of the action is unimportant, so the passive voice can be appropriate, like in my sentence about the internment of Japanese Americans.
Teacher: Exactly. But, in most other cases, the active voice makes our writing less wordy and less confusing because the focus stays on the doer of the action and never hides it--from your readers or yourself.
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