The difference between Active Voice and Passive Voice!
In an active sentence, the person or agency who is taking an action is the
subject of the
sentence. In a passive sentence, the person or item that is acted upon is the
subject of the
sentence. Passive sentences often do not identify who is performing the action.
Examples of Active Voice:
The dog bit the boy.
Scientists have conducted experiments to test the hypothesis.
Examples of Passive Voice:
The boy was bitten by the dog.
Experiments have been conducted to test the hypothesis.
How to identify a passive sentence?
Overuse of passive voice throughout an essay can cause your prose to seem
flat and uninteresting. In
scientific writing, however, passive voice is more readily accepted since using
it allows one to write
without using personal pronouns or the names of particular researchers as the
subjects of sentences.
This practice helps to create the appearance of an objective, fact-based discourse
because writers
can present research and conclusions without attributing them to particular
agents. Instead, the
writing appears to convey information that is not limited or biased by individual
perspectives
or personal interests.
You can recognize passive-voice expressions because the verb phrase will always
include a form of be,
such as am, is, was, were, are, or been. The presence of a be-verb, however,
does not
necessarily mean that the sentence is in passive voice. Another way to recognize
passive-voice
sentences is that they may include a "by the..." phrase after the verb; the
agent performing the action,
if named, is the object of the preposition in this phrase.
Suggestions:
1. Avoid starting a sentence in active voice and then shifting to passive.
Many customers in the restaurant found the coffee too bitter to drink, but it
was still ordered
frequently. BAD
Many customers in the restaurant found the coffee too bitter to drink, but they
still ordered it
frequently. GOOD!
2. Avoid dangling modifiers caused by the use of passive voice. A dangling
modifier is a word or
phrase that modifies a word not clearly stated in the sentence.
To save time, the paper was written on a computer. (Who was saving time? The
paper?) BAD
To save time, Kristin wrote the paper on a computer. GOOD!
3. Don't trust the grammar-checking programs in word-processing software.
Many grammar checkers
flag all passive constructions, but you may want to keep some that are flagged.
Trust your
judgement, or ask another human being for their opinion about which sentence
sounds best.