TIPSĪvoid past tense “to be” (was/were) verbs when discussing action to avoid passive voice.

The students earned their grades by their use of active voice. The grades were earned by the students based on their use of active voice.Īctive: The students submitted the essays to the professor, and the professor reviewed the essays. Passive: The essays were submitted to the professor by the students, and the essays were reviewed for grades. Another way of saying this is make sure your subjects are performing an action rather than having an action performed on. Your verb sill probably have to change to match the context of your new sentence (usually, this means that you will need to remove the “to be” verb and adjust the action verb). It’s an admonition that’s been uttered by everyone from high school English teachers to newspaper editors to renowned writing instructors: use the active voice over the passive voice. Once you have identified these key elements, restructure your sentence so that the “actor” comes first, the verb second, and the “receiver” last. Who/what is the “receiver” of this sentence?.Who/what is the “actor” of this sentence?.To shift sentences from passive to active voice, ask yourself PASSIVE: The bridge was being repaired by zombies. Having trouble identifying if your sentence is passive? If you can add “by zombies” after the verb in your sentence, it is probably passive voice. The students were asked to participate by the Chancellor. Passive Voice:įocuses on who/what is receiving the action The Chancellor asked the students to participate. In passive voice, the sentence structure is nearly inverse, with the receiver at the beginning, the actor at the end, and a “to be” verb (was, were, etc.) with an action verb in between. Active voice as a way of structuring sentences places the “actor” of a sentence at the beginning, and the “receiver” of the action at the end, with the verb between them. In academic contexts, active voice is often preferred over passive voice because it achieves clear, concise, and interesting writing.

Active passive voice