A passive voice was heard;
or What's so Bad About Passive?
by Jane Harmon
Many writers slip into passive voice when they want to sound formal or
'more professional', and wind up perpetrating some stilted and
unnatural sentences. Many people think this sounds more academic, or
even
think it makes them sound smarter, but it's almost always unnecessary
and could - and probably should - be avoided.
Active versus Passive - what is the passive voice?
A sentence is said to be in the active voice when the subject noun is
the 'actor' carrying out the action of the verb. If the actor isn't the
subject of the sentence, or isn't even in the sentence, then the
sentence is in the passive voice.
The boy hit the ball. - active voice
The ball was hit by the boy. - passive voice
The ball was hit. - passive voice, missing actor
Who uses the passive voice, and why?
The passive voice is much beloved by bureaucrats and other proponents
of gobblegook. The most famous passive construction, of course, is the
notorious "Mistakes were made." This seems to presuppose an uninhabited
landscape, where mistakes just bubble up out of the ooze. There are no
active participants here - Mistakes? they just happen. This, of course,
is why the passive voice is so prevalent in government and business
documents. There is no accountability - stuff happens.
Actor unknown
The passive voice is also used when the actor is unknown.
The vehicle was left unattended. Subsequently
the bombsquad was called.
In the first sentence, you don't know who left the vehicle unattended -
if you did, perhaps the bombsquad wouldn't have to come out on a Sunday
night.
The vehicle was left unattended. Concerned
tenants phoned the police,
who subsequently called the bombsquad.
Whoa. There's a lot more information there, isn't there? It's not just
that the bombsquad was called; the police called them in, not
over-reacting neighbors.
Hidden accountability
You may find it necessary to use the passive voice for political
reasons; perhaps you are told to downplay your organization's role in a
corporate fiasco, for instance. Thus, you might write: "The computers
were shut down until the virus could be contained."
Irrelevant Actor
Sometimes it doesn't matter who the actor of the action is, and thus it
is omitted.
Columbus discovered America in 1492. - active
America was discovered in 1492. - passive, missing actor
If the topic is Columbus, you use the active example; if the topic is
America, you use the second. Perhaps you are starting a novel about a
youth from Bologna. "America was discovered in 1492. That same year,
Josef of Bologna left his father's house." In this example, Columbus is
irrelevant. You are simply setting a stage for Josef.
Active Voice = Strong Writing
Switching from passive voice to active voice almost always punches up
your sentences, and makes your writing stronger and more
immediate.
A good time was had by all.
Everyone had a good time.
The rebels were stopped at the frontier.
Allied forces stopped the rebels at the frontier.
If you want to create a distance and remoteness in your prose, by all
means, make use of the passive - that's what it's there for. But while
you could say "the cake was left out in the rain", isn't it much
more evocative to say "Someone left the cake out in the rain", even if
you don't know who did it?
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