Active Voice

Active Voice

Using an active voice in your writing means that the subject of the sentence is creating the action. This adds more impact to your writing, which is why most writers use the active voice.

Active Voice Usage

Sentences written in an active voice flow better and are easier to understand. When you use an active voice, the emphasis is on the subject of the sentence, which is doing the action. This makes the sentence straightforward and concise. Examples are:

• I really love this TV show.

• Gorillas live in the jungle.

Sentences that use a passive voice are often harder to understand. Passive voice can make a sentence awkward and vague. The emphasis changes to the receiver of the action. Examples are:

• This TV show is loved by me.

• The jungle is where gorillas live.

Passive sentences usually have more words than active ones, which is one reason why the reader has to work harder to get the meaning, and the sentence structure can seem unwieldy. If you have a composition that is too difficult to understand, you may be able to change some passive sentences to active ones. Two examples are:

• The electoral ballots were counted by the volunteers. (passive)

The volunteers counted the electoral ballots. (active)

• The flowers were stepped on by the dog. (passive)

The dog stepped on the flowers. (active)

Active Voice Adds Impact

An active voice adds impact to your sentence; however, you may sometimes want to use the passive voice to lessen the impact of your sentence.

• Sometimes the active voice is used to deliberately obscure who is responsible for an action, like if a politician said, “Mistakes were made” or “Shots were fired.”

• Businesses may use the passive voice to lessen their impact like “Your service will be shut off” which is passive, rather than “We are going to shut off your service.” which is active.

• In crime reports, a policeman would write, “the bank was robbed” because he does not know who actually robbed the bank.

• In a mystery novel, you may want to place the emphasis on what was taken, like “the jewels were taken” rather than focus on the unknown person who took them.

In most English sentences with an action verb, the subject performs the action denoted by the verb:

  These examples show that the subject is doing the verb's action.

The boy must have eaten all of the hot dogs.

The boy (subject) is doing the eating (verb).

Jennifer mailed him the love letter.

Jennifer (subject) is doing the mailing (verb).

Colorful iguanas live in the Amazon rainforest.

Iguanas (subject) are doing the living (verb).

Because the subject does or "acts upon" the verb in such sentences, the sentences are said to be in the active voice.

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