Active voice vs passive voice how to#

This preserves the objectivity of a passive sentence, but it also keeps the sentence clear and concise. Passive Voice: The initial hypothesis is contradicted by the findings.īut you we could also remove the first-person pronoun “I” and make it more objective by making “the findings” the subject of an active sentence:Īctive Voice: The findings contradict the initial hypotheses. We could change this to the passive voice as follows: The arrow points from the subject performing the action (the dog) to the individual being acted upon (the boy). Take the following active, first-person sentence, for example:Īctive Voice: I conclude that the findings contradict the initial hypothesis. Using Active Versus Passive Voice In a sentence using active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action expressed in the verb. In addition, the passive voice isn’t the only way to eliminate the first person from your work. On other occasions, the active voice is clearer and more concise. The second option is thus usually better in an academic context.

Passive Voice: The results were compared to previous studies. However, you could also remove the “I” from this sentence by using the passive voice, which gives it a more objective, “scholarly” tone: To describe an experiment, for instance, you could use the active voice:Īctive Voice: I compared the results with previous studies. Using the passive voice can therefore give your work a more objective tone. Some people, for example, discourage use of the active voice in academic writing because it is associated with using the first person (e.g., “I” or “we”), which can draw focus away from the subject matter.

Active voice vs passive voice how to#

The key is knowing how to use them appropriately in different situations. This is because sentences in active voice tend to be stronger and more concise. Schools typically teach students to avoid the passive voice whenever possible. The passive voice, on the other hand, emphasizes the action or the recipient of the action. “Relations with that woman were not had.” Active Voice or Passive Voice?īoth active and passive voice sentences have a role to play in formal writing. The active voice emphasizes the subject, or the thing performing the action. This kind of omission is useful if you’re trying to create suspense by withholding information or distance yourself from your actions (such as when politicians say “Mistakes were made”).