7.1. Tone and Style http://www.ck12.org
When we use passive voice
- thereceiver of the action(goal) becomes thesubject
- thesource of the action(agent) may or may not appear
E.g.: Benefitsfor the unemployed have been extended(by the government).
goal agentPassivevoice is very useful to describe actions whose agents are obvious, not known, or not important. However,
in an argumentative essay, passive voice may place your characters at the end of sentences, and this may not be
a strong argumentative strategy. In this case,activevoice should be used, especially when actions derive from
visible characters.
Passiveandactivevoices coexist because each has a distinct function. They allow writers to describe the same
phenomenon from two different viewpoints. Writers need to understand the uses of each in order to make
informed decisions about when to use either active or passive voice.
Here are a few hints to help you determine which voice may be appropriate in a sentence or description.
a. If your readers must know who is responsible for the action, chooseactivevoice.
E.g.: The CIA should disclose torture documents to the public.
b. If you do not know who did the action, or this information is either obvious or not important, usepassivevoice.
E.g.: Very expensive jewelry should not be kept at home.
c. Your choice can also be determined by flow in your text. Consider the following paragraphs:
E.g.: Students must choose if they want make-up classes either right after school or in the evening. Thepopular
footballgamescheduleandnottheacademicone(new information)mayinfluencetheirchoicemorestrongly(old
information).
The underlined sentence above is in active voice, and it contains the new piece of information before the old one.
In this case, passive voice is a better choice. It will place old information first and increase sentence flow, as the
following example shows:
E.g.: Students must choose if they want make-up classes either right after school or in the evening.Theirchoice
maybemorestronglyinfluencedbythepopularfootballgameschedulethanbytheacademicone.
Review Questions