Active & Passive Voice
How to Use Both of These Effectively
Greetings everyone!
My name is Abby, and I’m back here with another handy tool to improve your writing. Today we’re talking about the Active vs Passive voices.
What are the Active and Passive voices?
Take a simple sentence:
“The boy loves pizza.”
It’s straightforward and easy to understand. Now take a look at this sentence:
“Pizza is loved by the boy.”
It’s a little clunkier, longer, and more awkward.
The first sentence, “The boy loves pizza,” is in the active voice. The second sentence, “Pizza is loved by the boy,” is in the passive voice. Both styles are suited for different types of writing, and neither is inherently better than the other.
Sentence Structure
In the sentence, “The cat claws at the string”, you can immediately tell that the subject (the cat) is doing the verb (clawing) to the object (the string).
However, in the sentence “The string is being clawed at by the cat,” the subject changes to the string and the verb is being done to the subject.
When Are They Used?
The active voice is best used in writing when the author wants the reader to focus on the person who is completing the actions. The sentences, “Robert paid the check,” and “The lady decided to take her dog on a walk,” focus on the person doing the action. It is less important that the check got paid, and what’s highlighted is that Robert was the one to do it.
On the other hand, the passive voice is best used when the author wants the reader to focus on the action that is being completed. News reporters and headlines will often use this. Big stories such as “Downtown Department Store Robbed” and “Man Found With Purses of Thirteen Different Women” are in the passive voice. In these examples, the headlines cut out the who of the event and focus on the what. Usually, this is because the cause of the action is not yet known, and also to separate the event from the person.
Concluding Thoughts
Even if you didn't know the difference between active and passive voices before reading this, you probably have still utilized it in some way. But now that you know, you can effectively use them in their different contexts to improve your writing. Hope this helps!
Have a blessed day, everyone!
great post Abby!!! I'm learning about active and passive voice in my school right now but this is also very helpful!
Great post, Abby! Using active and passive voice correctly is so important when writing!