Active and Passive Voice .

l  VOICE indicates if the subject acts or is being acted upon.

l  ACTIVE VOICE: Kristen wrote the report (the subject, Kristen, acts).

l  PASSIVE VOICE: The report was written by Kristen (the subject, the report, was acted upon).

l  When you use the ACTIVE VOICE, you achieve greater precision when you answer who or what performs each action.

l  The problem with PASSIVE VOICE is that it begs this question:

Who or what performed the action?

l  Some passive sentences quickly answer the who or what question with a prepositional phrase:

The report was written by Kristen.

The preposition is wordy and identifies the actor too late

To eliminate the passive voice:

l  Find and mark the passive voice: it always has a “to be” verb (is, are, was, were, been …) plus another verb.

Example: The report was written by Kristen.

To eliminate the passive voice:

l  Answer the question who or what does the action.

Example: Kristen wrote the report.

To eliminate the passive voice:

l  Make the answer the subject of the verb.

Example: Kristen wrote the report.