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Many writers struggle with the concept of active voice versus passive voice. Even in the blogging world, your SEO can be affected by having too much passive voice in your work—there are recommended maximums for its usage.
But… what even is it?
Passive Voice
To dispel the most common guess, passive voice is not the same as “past tense.”
Passive voice occurs when the subject of your sentence isn’t actively doing something, or actively present.
Examples:
- Many grammatical errors were made in the writing of this novel.
- The recipe can be found at the bottom of page 5.
- The washing machine was run without any detergent.
Sentences written in the passive voice are essentially missing information. There is no way within these sentences as they stand, to know who made the grammatical errors, who will find the recipe, or who ran the washing machine without adding detergent.
Passive voice has a very specific use. Its style is often associated with emphatic, overly formal writing. It is not, contrary to popular belief, grammatically incorrect or wrong. It may be the wrong style for writing that is meant to have a more conversational flow to it, but it isn’t wrong in and of itself.
Active Voice
If you want your writing to sound more friendly, or upbeat, the active voice is the preferred style.
Examples:
- The author made many grammatical errors in the writing of this novel.
- I found the recipe at the bottom of page 5.
- My husband ran the washing machine without any detergent.
Passive Voice + Active Voice
In situations where we’re trying to avoid placing blame, or we think using “someone” or “you” may be informal, feel free to use the passive voice followed by additional information in the active voice.
Examples:
- Many grammatical errors were made in the writing of this novel. As the editor, it is my job to fix them.
- I made a lovely coffee cake from Generic Magazine last weekend. The recipe can be found at the bottom of page 5.
- The washing machine was run without any detergent. We’ll just need to do wash this load one more time.
Active voice versus passive voice can be confusing when you’re first learning about it. If you reread your copy and find that a sentence is missing the subject, or the subject doesn’t have an action attached to it, you’ve found your passive voice!
I find Grammarly very handy for finding these “errors” (erroneous in the sense that I write in a conversational style), and it will offer suggestions on how to change the sentence up!
I hope this post will help you actively understand the difference between active voice and passive voice. (See what I did there?)
What points of grammar do you struggle with the most? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love to help you understand better in a future post!