Top Tips From The Write Coach
What is the difference between Active Voice & Passive Voice?
Learn the three ways to correct Passive Voice.
What is the difference between Passive Voice and Past Tense?
Active Voice creates powerful prose.
Keep your readers engaged and turning the page.
~ Joyce Glass ~
What is the difference between Active Voice and Passive Voice?
In most basic terms, active voice keeps the action moving in your writing. Passive voice is similar to your Uncle Harold laying in his recliner waiting for the action to come to him. Passive voice slows the momentum down in your writing, and can be very dry to read.
What is Active Voice?
Active voice keeps the reader moving along. According to the Chicago Manual of Style, in a sentence using active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action expressed in the verb.
Basic Sentence Structure:
Subject ~ Verb ~ Object
Active Voice Sentence:
Using the active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action expressed in the verb.
Mary wrote a blog post.
I damaged your car.
What is Passive Voice?
In a sentence using passive voice, the subject is acted upon; he or she receives the action expressed by the verb. The agent performing the action may appear in a "by the..." phrase or may be omitted. (Chicago Manual of Style). Passive voice typically have a form of to be with another verb.
The blog post was written by Mary
Your car has been damaged.
What is the big deal about Active Voice? Active Voice versus Passive Voice ~ Episode #402 -> Listen to The Write Hour with Joyce Glass, Tips From #TheWriteCoach
Examples
1) Passive
What I was to blind to see in the beginning was that God’s power would be made perfect in my weakness.
Active
What blinded me in the beginning is I didn’t see how God’s power would perfect my weakness.
2) Passive
When I was betrayedby my husband, I thought God was punishingme for something.
Active
When my husband betrayed me, I thought God wanted to punish me.
3) Passive
He wasn’t killed by a drunk driver or a robber.
Active
A drunk driver nor a robber killed him.
Three Options To Correct Passive Voice:
Delete the form of "to be" in front of the verb to make active.
Replace the form of "to be" and verb with a better word.
Rework the sentence. Take the end and put at the beginning.
Do Not Confuse Passive Voice With Past & Present Tense:
A sentence can be past tense and active.
Past Tense - I thought God wanted to punish me.
Present Tense - I think God is punishing me.
Both sentences are in Active Voice. Active and Passive Voice is the sentence structure not what tense.
Episode Highlights:
00:29 Intro
02:01 What is the difference between Active Voice and Passive Voice?
02:28 What is Active Voice?
03:38 What is Passive Voice?
05:23 Passive/Active Voice Examples
10:21 Three Options To Correct Passive Voice
