The Passive Voice Primer
What Is Passive Voice?
Passive voice is a type of sentence construction in which the subject is merely acted upon by an agent—rather than acting on something itself:
The woman (subject) was bitten by a dog (agent).
Compare passive voice with an active construction, in which the subject acts as an agent, usually with a corresponding object.
A dog (subject) bit the woman (object).
When Should I Use It?
Use passive voice to emphasize the thing being acted upon, or when the agent is unimportant or unknown.
The woman was bitten at eight o'clock last night.
The woman was bitten.
You may also use it when using active constructions would sound awkward or clunky.
When (And Why) Should I Avoid It?
Avoid passive voice when it's possible to form an active construction without sounding awkward or losing the proper emphasis.
Passive voice increases word count unnecessarily, misleads readers, and interrupts a sentence's flow. In contrast, active constructions sound more natural, more succinct, and more clear. They also draw the reader into the sentence more effectively than the passive voice could ever accomplish.
HOW Can I Avoid Passive Voice?
Most passive constructions make an easy transition to active voice. Simply alter some of the word order to make the subject an agent rather than an object. Remember our example of active voice?
A dog (subject) bit the woman (object).
We took the agent from the first example (dog) and swapped that with the subject (woman). Now woman becomes the object, dog becomes the subject, and the sentence becomes active.
