Prefer the active voice
Summary: Prefer the active voice – it is simpler, less formal and uses less words.
Limit passive voice to around 5% of sentences.
Overusing the passive voice makes content sound more formal. It sometimes requires more words. And it can be vague about who’s responsible for an action.
Identifying active and passive voice
The simplest way to identify the voice of a verb (or action) is to note the position of the verb and its doer (or ‘subject’) within the sentence.
If the doer (the person, group or thing that performs the action) appears first, the verb is active. Example: ‘The company cancelled the training.’
If the verb appears first, it’s passive. Example: ‘The training has been cancelled by the company.’
This method is useful because it tells you how to switch to active voice — simply move the doer in front of the verb.
Another easy way to identify passive voice is by the phrase ‘by [the doer]’. Example: ‘The invoice was paid by my office.’ If the doer isn’t mentioned in a sentence, the verb is still passive if you could add this phrase. Example: ‘The invoice was paid.’
Examples
In these examples, the verbs (or verb phrases) are bolded and the doer is italicised.
| Before - passive | After - active |
|---|---|
The project will be considered by the Board. |
The Board will consider the project. |
The team's performance is discussed by our manager at a monthly managers' meeting. |
Our manager discusses the team’s performance at a monthly managers’ meeting. |
Chaos was caused by the strike. |
The strike caused chaos. |
The funding was approved by zombies. |
Council approved the funding. |
Appropriate use of passive voice
There are times when it is fine to use the passive voice.
Emphasise the object of an action
‘100 votes are required to pass the bill.’ Here, the passive voice emphasises the number of votes. The active voice would emphasise the bill.
De-emphasise an unknown doer
‘Over 100 contaminants have been dumped into the river’. Here, the passive voice is fine because we don’t know who did this. We could write ‘Someone dumped over 100 contaminants into the river’, but the sentence sounds weaker this way.
When the doer is obvious, unimportant, or people in general
‘This bridge was built in 1905.’ To write ‘Bridge builders built the bridge in 1905’ is to state the obvious.
Resources
- Grammar checker in MS Word can identify passive voice.
- Hemingway app marks passive voice