Some writers mistakenly use passive voice when active voice is preferable, that is, except in some situations. Active voice, after all, emphasizes the subject, not what should be the direct object, and action verbs are far more forceful and direct than forms of “be” and “have.”
Active Voice Explained
When a sentence (or clause) is written in active voice, the subject performs the action the verb indicates. For example, “Sue cuts the grass.” “Sue” is the subject because she is what the sentence is about. “Cuts” is the verb and tells what Sue does (She cuts); and grass isthe direct object, which is a word that receives the action of the verb and answers the question “what” or “who” (Sue cuts what? She cuts the grass).
In an active voice construction, the direct object receives the action of the verb and the sentence, therefore, conveys action. In a passive voice construction, however, since the direct object becomes the subject of the verb and what should be the subject becomes the object of a preposition, the verb no longer conveys action.
- Tom watched football the entire weekend. (“Watched” is the verb, and “football” is its direct object)
- Football was watched the entire weekend by Tom. (This is passive voice; note how both the subject and the direct object have been moved.)
Note: A clause is a subject plus a verb plus any modifiers, and every sentence consists of one or more clauses. An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence, but a dependent (or subordinate) clause relies upon an independent clause to give it full meaning. For example, When Sue passed out from the heat while cutting grass, Tom was watching the Altanta Falcons slay the New Orleans Saints. Because of the subordinating conjunction "when," the first clause is dependent upon the second clause.
Passive Voice Explained
In the passive voice, the subject and direct object are reversed, and this reversal can occur in any verb tense, for example:
- Tom watches football while the grass is cut by Sue. (Present tense)
- Tom watched football while the grass was cut by Sue. (Simple past tense)
- Tom is watching football while the grass is being cut by Sue. (Present progressive tense)
- Tom was watching football while the grass was being cut by Sue. (Past progressive tense)
- Tom has watched football while the grass has been cut by Sue. (Present perfect tense)
- Tom had watched football while the grass had been cut by Sue. (Past perfect tense)
- Tom will watch football while the grass will be cut by Sue. (Future tense)
- Tom will be watching football while the grass will be being cut by Sue. (Future progressive tense)
In all the above examples, in the first clause, which is in active voice, “Tom” is the subject of the verb and “football” is the direct object. What does Tom watch? Football. What did Tom watch? Football. What was Tom watching? Football. And so on. In the second clause, however, since it’s written in the passive voice, the subject of the verb is “grass,” and “Sue” is the object of the preposition by.
How Passive Voice Is Created
To create passive voice, a writer uses some form of “be” and/or “have” as the helping verb or verb phrase (am, are, is, was, were, has been, had been, is being, was being, etc) with the past participle of the main verb. For example:
- The grass was being cut by Sue when she passed out from the heat. (“Was being” the past progressive form of “be,” plus the past participle of “cut”)
The problem with passive voice is that what should be the subject of the sentence or clause becomes the object of a preposition; and, as a result, the sentence loses strength. Therefore, instead of saying, “Tom’s novel was rejected by every agent he queried,” it’s far better to say, “Every agent Tom queried rejected his novel.”
Exceptions to the Rule
When the receiver of the action is more important than the doer, the passive voice is preferable and sometimes more effective, for example:
- As Tom walked home late Saturday night from the neighborhood bar, he was accosted by a mugger.
Here, the writer wishes to emphasize Tom, the one who was accosted and mugged, not the unknown mugger, who accosted Tom then vanished into the night with Tom’s wallet.
- “There in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human was crushed by books.” — John Hersey (Seldes, 1985)
Here, Hersey is emphasizing the “human” who was crushed by books, not the books that did the crushing.
Ultimately, when it comes to deciding between active and passive voice, writers should think about two things: What they wish to emphasize and how the sentence sounds. If they wish to emphasize the doer of the action, they should use active voice; but if they wish to emphasize the receiver of the action, they should use passive voice. On the other hand, if the sentence sounds affected and weak, they are probably using passive voice when active voice would be far more effective.
Seldes, G. (1985) The Great Thoughts; New York: Ballantine Books.
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