Passive Voice

What is Passive Voice?

No, passive voice is not when shy people read Shakespeare in front of class.  Passive voice is a writing style. Although it is usually frowned upon when used, passive voice is not necessarily a bad writing technique.

Passive voice is when you make the object of an action the subject of a sentence. You are taking whoever or whatever is performing the action and no longer making it the main grammatical subject of the sentence. 

Why did the chicken cross the road? The chicken crosses the road.

“Chicken” is the subject of the sentence and the “road” is the object. How can we change the sentence so that “road” is promoted to the subject position?

            Why was the road crossed by the chicken? The road was crossed by the chicken.

Since it is the chicken that is the thing that is doing an actual action (crossing, the road just stays there), writers will tend to make it the actual subject of the sentence.

Why is Passive Voice Frowned Upon?

Writers in the social studies and humanities typically avoid passive voice because it harms the clarity of their writing. Instead of knowing what the subject of the sentence is right away, the reader instead has to read through a potentially confusing sentence to get to the point. Passive voice also is seen as a way for a writer to avoid any rigorous thinking in their sentences:

The working class was marginalized after the Tariff Clause of 1906 was passed by Congress.

When Congress passed the Tariff Clause of 1906, it marginalized the working class.

The Tariff Clause of 1906 marginalized the working class and caused Congress’s approval rating to fall sharply among immigrants and the poor.

By avoiding passive voice, you can add clarity to your writing and demonstrate a deeper understanding of the topics you discuss.

When should I use passive voice?

Although the writers in the humanities discourage passive voice, scientific writing sometimes recommends it. The reason behind this is because passive voice can lead to an “objective tone” where the writer can completely avoid the first person (using “I” or “we”). This might be true in lab reports:

            Then we sequenced the human genome by the end of the process.

            The human genome was sequenced by the end of the process.

Still double check with your lab instructors as to what they prefer. Other reasons why passive voice might be more effective:

   1)    To emphasize an object: Friday is when the essay is due.

    2)     If you don’t know who the subject/ actor of the sentence is: The staplers have been stolen from my classroom.

    3)     If the readers don’t need to know who is responsible for the action: Baby Sophia was delivered at 3:30 am yesterday morning. We are so happy. (As opposed to the active voice: “Dr. Gwendolyn Looterback-Smoote delivered baby Sophia yesterday at 3:30 am. We are so happy”).

State whether the following sentences are active or passive, and then rewrite them and turn them into the opposite:

The bill was vetoed by the legislature.

Batman was defeated by Bane after the Bat Cave was blown up by grenades.

Superman kissed Lana Lang after saving the day yet again.

The snickers bar is being eaten by Evelyn at this very moment as the life story of Ninny is being told.

The students check the class blog every day in case there is extra homework they can do.