When should I avoid the passive voice? When might I use it?

What do you want to emphasize? If it's the person doing the action, by all means use active voice. "Heinrich Schliemann ate a sandwich" emphasizes Schliemann, while "the sandwich was eaten by Heinrich Schliemann" emphasizes the sandwich. Contrast this with "Heinrich Schliemann excavated Troy", which seems more at home in a biography of Herr Schliemann, versus "Troy was excavated by Heinrich Schliemann".

Usually, the person and the action are the more interesting parts of the sentence, and people identify more with the person than the object. This typically means that active voice is more interesting and easier to read. (This holds even when the object is the more important part, which is one reason scientific papers are often unpleasant to read: "The correlation was found to be significant at p < 0.01" is dryer than "We found the correlation to be significant a p < 0.01", even though the important part is the correlation and not the investigators.) "Troy", on the other hand, grabs much harder than "Hermann Schliemann".

posted about 14 years ago

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David Thornley‭

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In fiction, I find active voice will usually lead to a more direct connection from the characters and action to the reader. Passive voice can be useful when the writer wants to demonstrate emotional detachment or distance. Re-casting a passive sentence in the active voice can occasionally lead to a convoluted mess; in these cases, I'd just write the sentence passively (and clearly) and move along. Unless you're generating business, technical or legal writing, you'll get better results by using active voice more often than not, particularly paired with a show, don't tell approach.

(Someone will produce a masterpiece of emotionally intimate fiction written almost entirely in the passive voice now, I expect.)

posted about 14 years ago

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Neil‭

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