How to Write Better Essays

concern should be to ensure the meaning is clear – avoid words that

are vague, whether short, simple, long or obscure.

2 Use the active voice

Wherever possible use the active, rather than the passive voice. All too

often the passive voice produces passive readers, who sleepwalk their

way through your prose. The active voice is almost always clearer and

more direct, so there’s no need, as many students writing academic

essays tend to believe, to convert every sentence into the passive form.

In the active form it’s the doer of the action who is the subject of

the sentence, rather than the receiver of the action, or the action itself,

as in the passive form. For example,

Passive: The party was made more enjoyable by Rita’s outrageous

stories.

Active: Rita’s outrageous stories made the party more enjoyable.

Passive: The blue getaway car was described by the bank clerk.

Active: The bank clerk described the blue getaway car.

Passive: An atmosphere of deep gloom is created by the novelist in

the last paragraph of the chapter.

Active: The novelist creates an atmosphere of deep gloom in the

last paragraph of the chapter.

Notice how the passive form is almost always less direct, positive and

concise. For example, you might say,

My first car will never be forgotten by me.

But when you convert this into the active voice with the doer of the

action the subject of the sentence, by being more direct it is more

concise, and also more positive:

I will never forget my first car.

But that’s not to say that the passive voice should never be used.

There are times when what is done is more important than who did it.

For example, the statement,

218 Writing

HTW28 7/27/01 8:40 AM Page 218