Active and Passive Voice

1
Active and Passive Voice

• VOICE indicates if the subject acts or is being
  acted upon.
• ACTIVE VOICE Kristen wrote the report (the
  subject, Kristen, acts).
• PASSIVE VOICE The report was written by Kristen
  (the subject, the report, was acted upon).

2
Active and Passive Voice

• When you use the ACTIVE VOICE, you achieve
  greater precision when you answer who or what
  performs each action.

3
Active and Passive Voice

• The problem with PASSIVE VOICE is that it begs
  this question
• Who or what performed the action?
• Some passive sentences quickly answer the who or
  what question with a prepositional phrase
• The report was written by Kristen.
• The preposition is wordy and identifies the actor
  too late.

4
Active and Passive Voice

• To eliminate the passive voice
• Find and mark the passive voice it always has a
  to be verb (is, are, was, were, been ) plus
  another verb.
• Example The report was written by Kristen.

5
Active and Passive Voice

• To eliminate the passive voice
• Answer the question who or what does the action.
• Example Kristen wrote the report.

6
Active and Passive Voice

• To eliminate the passive voice
• Make the answer the subject of the verb.
• Example Kristen wrote the report.