This month's PepperMill

Choose Your Voice

I love French fries.

French fries are loved by me.

These sentences reveal that I have a predilection for salty greasy food, but they also illustrate the difference between active and passive voice. Active and passive voice seem like something that only English teachers and the squiggly green Word error lines care about, but understanding the two voices is actually an easy way to make your writing stronger.

In a sentence that’s written in the active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action of the verb.

Marcy crashed the hang glider.

In a sentence that uses the passive voice, the subject is acted upon.

The hang glider was crashed by Marcy.

Verbs in the passive voice have two parts: a form of the verb “to be” (e.g. was, is, were) plus the past participle of the main verb. However, the presence of “to be” doesn’t necessarily mean that the sentence is in the passive voice.

Jordan is laughing at the gnome-like man.

The gnome-like man is being laughed at by Jordan.

The first sentence is in the active voice. Jordan is completing the action. And being quite rude. The second sentence is the passive voice. The subject of the sentence, “the gnome-like man,” isn’t doing anything. He’s just sitting there, being laughed at by Jordan.

In almost every situation, the active voice is the better voice. When you use the active voice, your sentences are stronger, clearer, less complicated and less wordy. Look at our last two sentences, for example. The first sentence expresses the same thought in fewer words and is easier on the reader.

However, the passive voice isn’t grammatically incorrect—it’s just not usually your best option. And there are times when the passive voice is the better choice. Most scientific writing is done in the passive voice. Passive voice works when you don’t know who or what is performing the action.

The Castafiore Emerald was stolen.

You may also want to use the passive voice when you want to emphasize who or what was acted upon rather than who performed the action.

My office was mentioned on the 10:00 news!

But overall, using the active voice is your express ticket to more powerful, more precise and less awkward writing.

Have a grammar question? Send them to wordup@peppergroup.com.