Slap passive voice in the mouth

SHAKING THE TREE #57

Smack!

Take that, bitch!

God, that felt good.

That was the sound of passive voice getting smacked.

Put simply, passive voice is a laboured use of language—a grammatical construction where the subject of a sentence undergoes an action rather than performing the action.

Here’s an example:

Passive voice: A new product was launched by the company.

Do you see how clunky and wooden this sounds?

A new product was launched. Was it? Yawn. Nobody cares.

Meanwhile, its opposite, something called active voice sates:

The company launched a new product.

It did? What kind of product? What does this new product do?

Now we’re intrigued.

See the difference?

I had a hard time in school wrapping my head around verbs and nouns and adjectives and so on and to be honest, some of the mechanics of written English still baffle me.

But I have a decent idea of how things ought to sound.

In passive voice sentences, the focus is on the recipient of the action rather than the doer. This typically includes a form of the verb "to be" (such as "is," "was," "were," "has been," or "will be") followed by a past participle.

Here’s an example:

• Active voice: "John wrote the report." (The subject, John, performs the action of writing.) He did? Great. What did John say in this report? We want to know.

• Passive voice: "The report was written by John." (The report becomes the focus, and John is now the receiver of the action.) This is boring. John did something? Whoop-de-doo. Do we care? Er, no.

Don’t get me wrong: passive voice is not inherently "bad," it’s simply that it’s considered less clear and direct than active voice.

Here are a handful of reasons why passive voice is considered less favorable in certain contexts:

1. Clarity: passive voice makes sentences less straightforward and harder to understand, especially when the performer of the action is not clear or is omitted.

2. Ambiguity: passive voice obscures the doer of the action, lcreating ambiguity or vagueness about who is responsible for the action.

3. Wordiness: passive constructions are wordier than active ones, making writing less concise and harder to read.

4. Lack of agency: Passive voice often removes the sense of agency or accountability by not explicitly stating who is performing the action.

However, passive voice can be useful in certain situations, such as when the doer of the action is unknown, or irrelevant; or when the emphasis is intentionally placed on the recipient of the action rather than the doer.

In writing, it's recommended to use active voice to create clearer, more direct, and more engaging sentences.

Active voice highlights the doer of the action, making the writing more dynamic and easier to follow for the reader.

Nonetheless, there are times when passive voice can be appropriate or necessary depending on the context and intended emphasis in the writing.

Here are more examples of passive voice:

1. Active Voice: The dog chased the cat.

   • Passive Voice: The cat was chased by the dog.

2. Active Voice: She cooked dinner.

   • Passive Voice: Dinner was cooked by her.

3. Active Voice: The teacher praised the students.

   • Passive Voice: The students were praised by the teacher.

4. Active Voice: They completed the project.

   • Passive Voice: The project was completed by them.

5. Active Voice: The company launched a new product.

   • Passive Voice: A new product was launched by the company.

6. Active Voice: He fixed the car.

   • Passive Voice: The car was fixed by him.

7. Active Voice: The storm destroyed the house.

   • Passive Voice: The house was destroyed by the storm.

8. Active Voice: They found the lost keys.

   • Passive Voice: The lost keys were found by them.

9. Active Voice: She wrote the novel.

   • Passive Voice: The novel was written by her.

10. Active Voice: The gardener planted the flowers.

    • Passive Voice: The flowers were planted by the gardener.

Remember, while passive voice has its uses, it's often clearer and more direct to use active voice in your writing to make your sentences more engaging and easier to understand. It’s taken me a long time to learn these lessons; I hope what I’ve shared here is helpful.

As always, thanks for reading.

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P.S. Next time on Shaking the Tree … Why everyone’s writing benefits from the Oxford comma.