![]() ![]() An excellent link for those who want further information can be found here.) (AKA the present participle for those who care about such things. Okay, it shows simultaneous action, which is one good reason to use an -ing form of a verb. There are reasons for adding a verb be and giving the -ing form to the verb, but make sure you have one.įor example: Beowulf gritted his teeth as he was ripping the arm from Grendel. There’s a more subtle gaffe as well: The hawk was swooping down upon the snake. You’ve put the snake in the place of the hawk, when he’s clearly doing nothing, not even getting away. The worst thing you could do here is to say: The snake was swooped down upon by the hawk. The hawk is clearly doing the acting here. The subject does the acting the object is acted upon.Ī clear example would be: The hawk swooped down on the snake. Most sentences of any length involve a subject and an object. This post will involve a quick grammar lesson, but I’ll keep it short. If your professor or a classmate tells you to work on your passive/active voice, come see me or one of my colleagues in the Writing Center.Passive voice is pervasive and often unwise. I hope you have a better understanding of the difference between passive and active voice, and when it’s appropriate to use both. Make that agent the subject of the sentence, and change the verb accordingly.” To change from passive to active, “consider carefully who or what is performing the action expressed in the verb. An opportunity is thus created for the introduction of obscure, pompous words and convoluted phraseology.” There’s specific circumstances when you need to use an active voice. As Porter says, with passive writing “ the writer is forced to construct longer sentences than might be required by the active voice. One downfall of passive writing is that the sentence can get complicated. It’s not necessary to know who’s notifying the police it only matters they’ve been notified. In this scenario, the passive sentence is the better option. Police are being notified that three prisoners have escaped. The dispatcher is notifying police that three prisoners have escaped. Purdue Owl says, “passive voice makes sense when the agent performing the action is obvious, unimportant, or unknown or when a writer wishes to postpone mentioning the agent until the last part of the sentence or to avoid mentioning the agent at all.” Purdue Owl explains two occasions when passive voice can be the better option: Sometimes, passive voice is the better option. ![]() Here’s an example of passive voice for a scientific report: “Samples were collected from six counties by our research team.” It’s not necessary here to put the subject first because it doesn’t matter who collected the samples it only matters if they were collected. In fact, it’s encouraged throughout scientific genres and composition. It’s important to note that passive voice isn’t always bad. As the younger sister I am, I like to think about active voice as assigning blame to someone or something. So, the sentence could be modified to: I broke your glasses. To change this example sentence to an active one, we need to add a subject to act on our verb. We don’t know how the glasses were broken or who broke them, but we do know it’s not possible for glasses to break themselves–resulting in a passive sentence. In a passive sentence, the subject is acted upon by the verb. Let’s start by making sure we’re clear on what passive and active voice is. This post will discuss the differences between active and passive voice, and help you avoid confusion in your own writing. If you can relate to this, then you’ve come to the right place. Have you ever been told to change your writing from passive to active? I know I have, and I also know this can be a frustrating comment to receive if you aren’t sure what the difference is between passive and active voice. I’m majoring in English Literature, and I have experience with blogging, creative writing, and professional writing. Hi, I’m Ellie Banfield, a class of 2024 Writing Consultant. Posted on: Ma| By: mbassett3 | Filed under: Visiting The Writing Center, Writing Process ![]()
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