Active – Passive Voice

Objectives:    Students will

    explain the differences between active and passive voice,

    examine the sentences they write by asking WWDW (Who or what is doing what?),

    identify passive constructions in their writing and others' writings, and

    revise passive constructions to reflect active voice.                    

The Theory

Read the following sentences.

A careless camper started the wildfire.

The wildfire was started by the careless camper.

Both of these sentences express the same thought, that a camper started a wildfire.  But the two sentences are not structured in the same way.  The “doer” of the action in the first sentence is at the beginning of the sentence; while the “doer” of the action in the second sentence is at the end of the sentence.  (Sometimes writers refer to this "doer" as an "agent" of the action.)  Does this matter?  To conscientious and deliberate writers, as you are trying to become, yes, it does matter.  The first sentence uses active voice while the second one uses passive voice.  So, why should you be concerned about this?  As a rule, good writers choose active verbs and pair them with subjects that name the person or thing doing the action, the agent.  Active verbs express meaning more emphatically and vigorously than forms of the verb be or verbs in the passive voice.  Forms of verbs using be lack strength because they convey no action; passive verbs lack power because their subjects receive the action instead of doing it.   Active voice also helps writers analyze their ideas and provide relationships between their ideas.

Although proficient writers use the passive voice, they do so DELIBERATELY.  Our purpose in this unit is to get you to identify passive constructions in your writing and eliminate them.  When you go on to publish your first book or manuscript and you have need for the passive voice, your editor will make those revisions.

The above explanations are based on
Diana Hacker’s The Bedford Handbook, Bedford Books, 1998.

Now click on the following link to open a PowerPoint Presentation on Eliminating Passive Voice.   After the presentation opens, click on the screen icon in the lower, right-hand corner and use the space bar to proceed through the presentation.

The Practice

Click on the following link and you will find seven sentences that use passive verbs.  Select five of them, revise them, and explain your reasoning for the changes.  When you are finished, copy and paste all of these sentences into the text portion of an email and send them to me.  In the subject line type LastName_passrevisions.

Click here for the Practice Revision activity related to the PowerPoint Presentation.

If you are still having difficulty understanding active and passive voice, link to these Web sites for additional explanations.  Sometimes a different approach to a topic will provide illumination.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_actpass.html

http://webware.princeton.edu/sites/writing/Handouts/passivevoice.pdf

http://www.journalism.bsu.edu/Journalism/Tutorials/Voice/voice.html#anchor1027283

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/p.html#passive

http://www.tc.cc.va.us/writcent/handouts/grammar/verbvoic.htm

The Application

If you understand the use of active and passive voice, then you need to complete the following activities.  If you don't, see your teacher.

Activity 1 – Click here to take an online quiz in which you will identify active and passive verbs in sentences.

Activity 2 – Find a paper that you wrote in another class that contains examples of passive voice.  Identify the passive constructions on the paper and, in the spaces between the lines, revise the sentences.  Remember WWDW.  When you are finished, submit your paper.

Activity 3 – Now compose five, level-appropriate, passive sentences.  Word process these in the text of an email document, not as an attachment, and exchange them with a partner via email.  In the subject line, type LastName_passiveactive.  In the text of the email, begin by typing Author - Your Name.  On the next line type Editor - Recipient of the email.  Then go on to type the five sentences.  When you receive the email, revise each passive sentence so that it is active.  Below each passive sentence, type the active version of it.  After revising, send the email back to your partner.  If there are any problems, please consult with each other.  When you are finished, email the final document to Mrs. Filak.

Activity 4 – Finally, log on to a newspaper Web site and find three examples of passive voice used in a news article.  Copy and paste the portion of the article into an email.  Include enough context so that one can determine the use of the passive construction.  Make sure you provide proper attribution for your source.  After the selection, revise the sentence.  Then email your selection to Mrs. Filak.   In the subject line, type LastName_apnewsarticle. 

Now go forth and apply what you learned here to your writing!

Return to top of page.