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Open almost any book on grammar or writing skills, and you'll come across
the advice "Use the active voice in preference to the passive voice".
Also, if you use Microsoft Word, you'll often get similar advice from its
grammar checker. Free of all the grammatical jargon, what does this mean?
Well, sentences written in the ACTIVE voice have the following structure:
DO-ER ACTION RECEIVER
For
example:
John wrote the report.
We
misplaced your correspondence.
The
council reserved its decision.
The
ratepayer thanked him.
As
you can see, sentences written in the active voice all start with the do-er
of the action.
Sentences written in the PASSIVE voice, though, start with the receiver of
the action:
RECEIVER ACTION BY-WHOM
For
example:
The
report was written by John.
Your correspondence was misplaced by us.
The
decision was reserved by the Council.
He
was thanked by the ratepayer.
Okay, so we've made a distinction between the two. This brings us back to
the traditional advice that it is preferable to write in the active voice
rather than the passive voice.
Why?
The
reason for this is that the active voice tends to sound simpler and more
direct. Also, it often requires fewer words.
For
example:
The
dog bit him. [Active]
He
was bitten by the dog. [Passive]
We
will send your goods within 14 days. [Active]
Your goods will be sent by us within 14 days. [Passive]
Personally, I don't feel that the world is going to end if you write a few
sentences in the passive voice now and then. Nonetheless, using the active
voice in the majority of cases will improve your writing by making it
simpler and more direct.
The
passive voice does have one "advantage" though: it allows us leave out the
do-er. Consider this alternative structure for passive sentences:
RECEIVER ACTION
The
report was written. [By whom?]
Your correspondence was misplaced. [By whom?]
The
decision was reserved. [By whom?]
He
was thanked. [By whom?]
By
leaving out the do-er, the passive voice allows us to hide responsibility.
It is thus much loved in government reports. :-)
When we write in the active voice, though, we are forced to identify the do-er,
and this eliminates a certain amount of evasion.
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