Grammar Workshop Series Active & Passive Voice Workshop Series Active & Passive Voice Robert...

Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre

Grammar Workshop Series

Active & Passive Voice

http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/


Passive Voice Pre-Test

The passive voice is best defined as:

A) using the wrong verb tense

B) not having a subject

C) having a subject that is acted upon

D) using a form of the verb “to be” and the

present participial

E) all of the above (Answer on next slide)



Passive Voice Pre-Test

The passive voice is best defined as:

A) using the wrong verb tense

B) not having a subject

C) CORRECT: having a subject that is

acted upon

D) using a form of the verb “to be” and the

present participial

E) all of the above



Defining “Voice”

• Voice:

– tells whether a subject “acts” or is “acted upon”

• Active Voice: Subject Acts

– Example: “Architects design buildings.”

• [“Architects” are the subject and do the designing]

• Passive Voice: Subject is Acted Upon

– Example: “Buildings are designed by architects.”

• [“Buildings” is the subject and is acted upon]



Recognizing the Passive Voice

• Always uses a form of “to be” followed by the past

participial (the past tense form) of the verb

• Often followed by a phrase beginning with “by . . . .,”

which expresses who did the action

– Example: “Taxes were lowered by that government

again.”

• So … passive voice uses form of "to be" + past

participial (+ optional “by” phrase) = passive voice

• The forms of “to be” used in the passive voice:

– is, are, am , was, were, has been, have been, had

been, will be, will have been, being



The Passive … Puts the Emphasis on the Recipient of the Action

• The passive voice can do some very useful things. It puts the emphasis on

the recipient of the action rather than the doer of the action, and so it is

often appropriate for scientific writing. For example, if you are describing

an experiment, the results are what matter, not the person doing the

experiment, so it makes sense to emphasize the results. Furthermore, the

results should be the same regardless of who does the experiment, so it

can be okay to leave the doer to one side sometimes.

• For example, “this paper will test the hypothesis that coffee is produced

when water is heated and mixed with ground coffee beans.” If the

hypothesis is valid, it shouldn’t matter who does the experiment. And it

would be awkward and clumsy to phrase the sentence in active: “This

paper will test the hypothesis that heating water which and then mixing it

with ground coffee beans produces coffee.”



The Passive … Can Be Used to Escape Responsibility

• However, the passive voice can also do some less useful things. Most

significantly, it can be used to evade responsibility. If you lend me a

computer and I break it, it’s really tempting to write myself out of the

picture by telling you that “The laptop you loaned me was broken.”

Politicians and bureaucrats are especially fond of this use of the passive—

“Mistakes were made” sounds better and less incriminating than “I made

a mistake.” Do not use the passive voice to cop out! If your sentence reads

as though you were creating a magical world where things “just happen”

without anyone doing them, change to active.



The Passive … Seems to Express a Consensus

• By removing the doer, the passive can sound authoritative. Statements

like “These theories are generally considered to be correct” sound like

they are objectively expressing a consensus view—because no one

person is referenced, it gives the impression that everybody who knows

anything about the topic agrees.

• Sometimes this will be appropriate, but this is rare. Most of the time,

these alleged consensus views are too broadly stated and lack support in

the form of references, citations, etc. The rhetorical impression of

consensus that the passive creates should not be used as a substitute for

a) doing your research and b) justifying your claims through specific

references to the work of others.



The Passive … Alters the Sentence Structure

• On the one hand, the passive voice tends to make sentences more

awkward. “I hit the ball” is direct, straight-forward, and punchy,

conforming to English Subject-Verb-Object sentence structure norms.

“The ball was hit by me,” on the other hand, is clumsy, and “The ball was

hit” leaves me wondering who hit it. So a basic rule of thumb is that active

voice will generally produce more effective sentences.

• However, by moving the object to the front of the sentence, the passive

voice can help with creating links between sentences—for example: “I

would like some coffee. This stimulating beverage [meaning coffee] is

produced by …” By using passive voice to move the object (“this

stimulating beverage”) to the front of the sentence, we brought it close to

the mention of coffee in the first sentence and created a link between the

two sentences.



The Passive … Sounds “Academic”

• Passive voice a) is used a lot by authority figures (academics,

politicians, bureaucrats, lawyers), b) can be used to make the

writer seem to be presenting an authoritative point of view,

and c) is fancier and superficially more “sophisticated” looking

than active voice.

• For all these reasons, students are often tempted to use the

passive voice simply to make their papers “sound academic.”

Don’t do this. A clear, straightforward active statement is

always preferable to the passive, unless there is a good

reason to use passive.



The Passive … Is Generally Less Concise than Active

• Active voice is usually more concise—compare “I made

mistakes” and “Mistakes were made by me.”

• Concision is a very good thing in academic writing.



The Passive Can Be Used in the Right Places and in Moderation

• Your fallback should be to use the active

• However, there are good reasons for using the passive, particularly in the sciences or in economics.

• As a general rule, imagine that every time you use the passive, someone asks you, “Why did you use it?”

• If you can give them a convincing reply, explaining clearly why it’s the right choice for this situation, you’re good to go.

• If you can’t … change the sentence to active.



Myth #1 about the Passive Voice

1. Use of the passive voice constitutes a

grammatical error.

– Use of the passive voice is not a grammatical

error

– It's a stylistic issue that pertains to clarity and

responsibility




2. Any use of "to be" (in any form)

constitutes the passive voice.

– The passive voice entails more than just using

“to be”

– Using “to be” is occasionally necessary and

does not constitute the passive voice by itself.




3. The passive voice always avoids the

first person; if something's in first

person ("I" or "we") it's also in the

active voice.

– You can very easily use the passive voice in

the first person

– "I was hit by the train."




5. I can rely on my grammar checker to

catch the passive voice.

– See Myth #1. Since the passive voice isn't a

grammar error, it's not always caught.

– Typically, grammar checkers catch only a

fraction of passive voice usage.



Some Examples

• “When her house was invaded, Penelope

had to think of ways to delay her

remarriage.”

– Like many passive constructions, this

sentence lacks explicit reference to the actor--

it doesn't tell the reader who or what invaded.

• “After suitors invaded Penelope's house,

she had to think of ways to fend them off.”

– The active voice clarifies the situation.



Some Examples

• “When the country was invaded, the local

inhabitants fought back.”

– Like many passive constructions, this

sentence lacks explicit reference to the actor--

it doesn't tell the reader who or what invaded.

• “When the rebel forces invaded the

country, the local inhabitants fought back.”

– The active voice clarifies the situation.



More Examples of Passive Voice

• “A new drug control system was set up.

– Passive Voice is unclear

– Begs the question, “by whom”?

• “The Lao People's Revolutionary Party set

up a system of drug control laws.”

– Active Voice is clear

– No questions are left unanswered



More Examples of Passive Voice

• The working class was marginalized.

• African Americans were discriminated against.

• Women were not treated as equals.

– In all of these examples, the reader learns little about

the systems, conditions, human decisions and factors that led each of those groups to experience their histories.

– This is LAZY, uncritical thinking and it is facilitated by the passive voice.



More Examples: Typical of

Undergraduate Essay-Writing • It is argued that…

• Hitler is portrayed as…

• The link between X and Y is made, showing that…

– All of these are claiming authority or consensus without proving anything

– You can heighten the level of your analysis by explicitly connecting an author with these statements.

• Anderson argues that…

• Kaczmarek portrays Hitler as…

• Ahmed draws a link between X and Y to show that…



The Political Uses of the Passive

• Mistakes were made.

• The Exxon Company accepts that a few

gallons might have been spilled.

• Some prisoners were tortured in Abu

Ghraib.

It should be clear why the passive is used in

sentences like these. Don’t evade

responsibility the way that these authors do.



Occasions to Use the Passive Voice

1. To emphasize an object.

– Example: “155 votes are required to pass the

bill.”




2. To de-emphasize an unknown subject /

actor.

– Example: “Over 120 different contaminants

have been dumped into the river.”

– If you don't know who the actor is, then the

passive voice makes more sense.




3. Scientific Writing (to give the document

the appearance of objectivity, or because

the actor is not as important as the results)

• Active: "then we sequenced the human

genome“

• Passive: "then the human genome was

sequenced“



Active/Passive Question 1

Choose the best sentence:

A) Lincoln won the Republican Party

nomination in 1860.

B) The Republican Party nomination was

won by Lincoln in 1860.

C) In 1860, the Republican Party nomination

was won by Lincoln.



Active/Passive Answer 1


A) BEST: Lincoln won the Republican

Party nomination in 1860.

B) The Republican Party nomination was

won by Lincoln in 1860.

C) In 1860, the Republican Party nomination

was won by Lincoln.



Active/Passive Question 2


A) Lincoln introduced measures that

resulted in the abolition of slavery.

B) The abolition of slavery was one of the

measures introduced by Lincoln.

C) Measures were introduced by Lincoln,

one of which was the abolition of slavery.



Active/Passive Answer 2


A) Best: Lincoln introduced measures

that resulted in the abolition of slavery.

B) The abolition of slavery was one of the

measures introduced by Lincoln.

C) Measures were introduced by Lincoln,

one of which was the abolition of slavery.



Active / Passive Question 3

A) Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes

Booth.

B) John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln.

C) either, depending on what you want to

emphasize




A) Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes

Booth.

B) John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln.

C) Best: either, depending on what you

want to emphasize




A) Lincoln was criticized by the

Copperheads for refusing to compromise

on the slavery issue

B) Copperheads criticized Lincoln for

refusing to compromise on the slavery

issue.

C) For refusing to compromise on the

slavery issue, Lincoln was criticized.



Active / Passive Answer 4

A) Lincoln was criticized by the

Copperheads for refusing to compromise

on the slavery issue

B) Best: Copperheads criticized Lincoln

for refusing to compromise on the

slavery issue.

C) For refusing to compromise on the

slavery issue, Lincoln was criticized.


Grammar Workshop Series Active & Passive Voice Workshop Series Active & Passive Voice Robert...

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