Using Active and Passive Voice
When you're ready to revise a piece of writing, ask yourself whether your words will actively engage your readers' attention and imagination. To ensure that your writing is interesting and exciting to read, check to see whether you've primarily used verbs in the active voice. Remember that an action verb is in the
active voice when the subject of the sentence performs the action. An action verb is in the
passive voice when its action is performed on the subject.
Active voice
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She blurted out the answer.
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Passive voice
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The answer was blurted out by her.
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Notice how the first sentence is lively and direct, while the second is wordy and dull. You can improve your writing by revising instances where you've used the passive instead of the active voice.
Still, there are times when the passive voice is useful. As a general rule, use the passive voice when you don't know who performed the action, when the performer is unimportant, or when you want to conceal the performer's identity. The sentences below show appropriate uses of the passive voice.
- Animal images were painted on the walls of the cave. (Who painted them is unknown.)
- Rome was not built in a day. (Who built it is unimportant.)
- Mistakes were made. (The writer doesn't want to identify who made them.)
