What Are Two Reasons To Avoid Using Passive Voice

What this handout is about

This handout will help you understand what the passive voice is, why many professors and writing instructors frown upon it, and how you lot tin revise your paper to achieve greater clarity. Some things hither may surprise yous. We hope this handout volition help y'all to understand the passive voice and allow you to make more informed choices every bit you write.

Myths

So what is the passive phonation? Commencement, permit's be clear on what the passive vox isn't. Beneath, we'll list some common myths about the passive voice:

1. Myth: Use of the passive voice constitutes a grammatical error.

Use of the passive voice is non a grammatical mistake. It'southward a stylistic issue that pertains to clarity—that is, in that location are times when using the passive vocalism can preclude a reader from agreement what you lot mean.

2. Myth: Any use of "to be" (in whatsoever course) constitutes the passive voice.

The passive voice entails more than than only using a being verb. Using "to exist" can weaken the impact of your writing, simply it is occasionally necessary and does not by itself institute the passive voice.

3. Myth: The passive vocalization always avoids the first person; if something is in showtime person ("I" or "nosotros") information technology's as well in the agile phonation.

On the contrary, you tin very easily utilise the passive vox in the start person. Here's an example: "I was hit by the dodgeball."

4. Myth: You should never use the passive vox.

While the passive voice can weaken the clarity of your writing, there are times when the passive phonation is OK and even preferable.

5. Myth: I tin can rely on my grammer checker to take hold of the passive vocalization.

See Myth #1. Since the passive voice isn't a grammar error, it's non ever caught. Typically, grammar checkers catch only a fraction of passive voice usage.

Do any of these misunderstandings sound familiar? If so, you're non alone. That's why nosotros wrote this handout. Information technology discusses how to recognize the passive voice, when y'all should avoid it, and when information technology'south OK.

Defining the passive vocalism

A passive structure occurs when you make the object of an action into the discipline of a judgement. That is, whoever or whatever is performing the action is not the grammatical subject of the sentence. Take a look at this passive rephrasing of a familiar joke:

Why was the road crossed past the chicken?

Who is doing the activity in this judgement? The chicken is the 1 doing the action in this sentence, just the craven is not in the spot where you would wait the grammatical subject field to be. Instead, the road is the grammatical discipline. The more familiar phrasing (why did the craven cross the route?) puts the actor in the field of study position, the position of doing something—the chicken (the actor/doer) crosses the road (the object). We utilize active verbs to represent that "doing," whether it be crossing roads, proposing ideas, making arguments, or invading houses (more on that shortly).

One time you know what to look for, passive constructions are easy to spot. Look for a class of "to be" (is, are, am, was, were, has been, take been, had been, will be, will take been, beingness) followed by a past participle. (The past participle is a form of the verb that typically, but not e'er, ends in "-ed." Some exceptions to the "-ed" rule are words similar "paid" (non "payed") and "driven." (non "drived").

Here'due south a sure-fire formula for identifying the passive voice:

form of "to exist" + past participle = passive voice

For example:

The metropolis has been scorched by the dragon'due south fiery breath.

When her house was invaded, Penelope had to think of ways to delay her remarriage.

Not every sentence that contains a form of "accept" or "be" is passive! Forms of the word "have" tin can practice several different things in English. For example, in the sentence "John has to study all afternoon," "has" is non part of a past-tense verb. It's a modal verb, like "must," "tin can," or "may"—these verbs tell how necessary it is to do something (compare "I have to study" versus "I may study"). And forms of "exist" are not ever passive, either—"be" can exist the main verb of a judgement that describes a state of beingness, rather than an action. For instance, the sentence "John is a good student" is not passive; "is" is simply describing John'due south state of being. The moral of the story: don't assume that whatever time you run into a form of "have" and a form of "to be" together, you are looking at a passive sentence.

Need more assist deciding whether a judgement is passive? Ask yourself whether there is an action going on in the sentence. If so, what is at the forepart of the sentence? Is information technology the person or thing that does the activeness? Or is it the person or thing that has the action done to information technology? In a passive sentence, the object of the action will exist in the subject position at the front end of the sentence. Every bit discussed to a higher place, the judgement will also contain a form of be and a past participle. If the subject field appears at all, information technology will usually exist at the end of the sentence, frequently in a phrase that starts with "by." Take a look at this example:

The fish was caught by the seagull.

If we enquire ourselves whether there's an action, the answer is yep: a fish is beingness caught. If we enquire what's at the front of the sentence, the player or the object of the activeness, it's the object: the fish, unfortunately for it, got defenseless, and at that place it is at the forepart of the sentence. The matter that did the communicable—the seagull—is at the stop, afterwards "past." There's a form of be (was) and a by participle (caught). This sentence is passive.

Let's briefly look at how to change passive constructions into active ones. You can commonly just switch the word lodge, making the actor and subject one by putting the actor up front:

The metropolis has been scorched past the dragon's fiery breath.

becomes

The dragon has scorched the city with his fiery breath.

becomes

When her house was invaded, Penelope had to call back of ways to filibuster her remarriage.

becomes

After suitors invaded her house, Penelope had to think of means to delay her remarriage.

To repeat, the cardinal to identifying the passive voice is to look for both a form of "to be" and a past participle, which usually, but not e'er, ends in "-ed."

Clarity and meaning

The main reason why your instructors pout on the passive vocalization is that they often have to guess what you mean. Sometimes, the confusion is minor. Let's look once again at that sentence from a student's paper on Homer'southward The Odyssey:

When her business firm 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 Penelope's firm. The agile voice clarifies things:

Afterwards suitors invaded Penelope's firm, she had to think of ways to fend them off.

Thus many instructors—the readers making sense of your writing—prefer that you use the agile vocalisation. They want you lot to specify who or what is doing the action. Compare the following ii examples from an anthropology paper on a Laotian village to encounter if you concur.

(passive)A new system of drug command laws was set up. (By whom?)

(active)The Lao People's Revolutionary Political party ready a new system of drug control laws.

Here's another case, from the same newspaper, that illustrates the lack of precision that tin accompany the passive vocalisation:

Gender training was conducted in half dozen villages, thus affecting social relationships.

And a few pages later:

Plus, marketing links were beingness established.

In both paragraphs, the writer never specifies the actors for those two actions (Who did the gender grooming? Who established marketing links?). Thus the reader has trouble appreciating the dynamics of these social interactions, which depend upon the actors conducting and establishing these things.

The following instance, once again from that newspaper on The Odyssey, typifies another instance where an instructor might desire more than precision and clarity:

Although Penelope shares heroic characteristics with her husband, Odysseus, she is not considered a hero.

Who does not consider Penelope a hero? It'south difficult to tell, merely the rest of that paragraph suggests that the student does not consider Penelope a hero (the topic of the newspaper). The reader might also conceivably call up that the student is referring to critics, scholars, or modern readers of The Odyssey. Ane might argue that the meaning comes through here—the problem is but stylistic. Nonetheless style affects how your reader understands your argument and content. Awkward or unclear style prevents your reader from appreciating the ideas that are so articulate to you when you lot write. Thus knowing how your reader might react enables you to make more effective choices when you revise. Then after you identify instances of the passive, you should consider whether your apply of the passive inhibits articulate agreement of what you mean.

Summarizing history or literary plots with the passive phonation: don't be a lazy thinker or author!

With the previous department in heed, you should as well know that some instructors proclaim that the passive voice signals sloppy, lazy thinking. These instructors argue that writers who overuse the passive vocalization take not fully thought through what they are discussing and that this makes for imprecise arguments. Consider these sentences from papers on American history:

The working class was marginalized. African Americans were discriminated against. Women were not treated every bit equals.

Such sentences lack the precision and connection to context and causes that mark rigorous thinking. The reader learns little about the systems, weather condition, human being decisions, and contradictions that produced these groups' experiences of oppression. And so the reader—the instructor—questions the writer's agreement of these things.

It is especially important to be certain that your thesis argument is clear and precise, so think twice before using the passive vocalization in your thesis.

In papers where you discuss the work of an writer—e.g., a historian or writer of literature—you lot can also strengthen your writing by non relying on the passive as a crutch when summarizing plots or arguments. Instead of writing:

It is argued that…
orTom and Huck are portrayed as…
orAnd so the link between Ten and Y is made, showing that…

you can heighten the level of your analysis by explicitly connecting an author with these statements:

Anderson argues that…
Twain portrays Tom and Huck as…
Ishiguro draws a link between X and Y to show that…

By avoiding passive constructions in these situations, y'all can demonstrate a more thorough understanding of the material you discuss.

Scientific writing

All this communication works for papers in the humanities, yous might annotation—but what almost technical or scientific papers, including lab reports? Many instructors recommend or even require the passive voice in such writing. The rationale for using the passive voice in scientific writing is that information technology achieves "an objective tone"—for example, by avoiding the first person. To consider scientific writing, let'due south break it up into two main types: lab reports and writing nigh a scientific topic or literature.

Lab reports

Although more and more scientific journals accept or even prefer first-person active voice (eastward.g., "so we sequenced the human genome"), some of your instructors may want you to remove yourself from your lab report past using the passive voice (eastward.grand., "then the human genome was sequenced" rather than "then we sequenced the human genome"). Such advice peculiarly applies to the section on Materials and Methods, where a procedure "is followed." (For a fuller discussion on writing lab reports, see our handout on writing lab reports.)

While you might utilize the passive voice to retain objectivity, you can still use active constructions in some instances and retain your objective opinion. Thus it's useful to go along in mind the sort of active verbs you lot might employ in lab reports. Examples include: back up, indicate, propose, correspond, challenge, yield, show.

Thus instead of writing:

A number of things are indicated by these results.

you could write:

These results indicate a number of things.
or Further analysis showed/suggested/yielded…

Ultimately, you lot should discover out your instructor's preference regarding your use of the passive in lab reports.

Writing almost scientific topics

In some assignments, rather than reporting the results of your own scientific work, you will be writing about the work of other scientists. Such assignments might include literature reviews and research reports on scientific topics. You have ii main possible tasks in these assignments: reporting what other people have done (their research or experiments) or indicating general scientific cognition (the body of noesis coming out of others' research). Often the 2 get together. In both instances, you can easily apply active constructions even though y'all might be tempted by the passive—peculiarly if you're used to writing your own lab reports in the passive.

You decide: Which of these 2 examples is clearer?

(passive) Heart disease is considered the leading crusade of death in the United States.

or (active)Inquiry points to center disease every bit the leading cause of death in the United states of america.

Alternatively, you could write this sentence with human actors:

Researchers have ended that heart affliction is the leading cause of death in the Us.

The last two sentences illustrate a relationship that the start one lacks. The starting time example does not tell who or what leads us to accept this conclusion nearly heart disease.

Here'south one last example from a study that describes angioplasty. Which sounds meliorate to you?

The balloon is positioned in an area of blockage and is inflated.
or The surgeon positions the balloon in an area of blockage and inflates information technology.

You can improve your scientific writing by relying less on the passive. The advice we've given for papers on history or literature equally applies to papers in more "scientific" courses. No matter what field you lot're writing in, when you lot utilize the passive vocalization, you lot risk conveying to your reader a sense of uncertainty and imprecision regarding your writing and thinking. The cardinal is to know when your instructor wants you to use the passive voice. For a more than general discussion of writing in the sciences, see our handout.

"Swindles and perversions"

Earlier we discuss a few instances when the passive might exist preferable, we should mention one of the more political uses of the passive: to hide blame or obscure responsibleness. You wouldn't do this, only you can learn how to become a critic of those who exhibit what George Orwell included amongst the "swindles and perversions" of writing. For case:

Mistakes were made.

The Exxon Company accepts that a few gallons might have been spilled.

By becoming critically enlightened of how others use linguistic communication to shape clarity and meaning, y'all can learn how meliorate to revise your own piece of work. Keep Orwell'due south swindles and perversions in mind as you read other writers. Because it'southward easy to leave the player out of passive sentences, some people utilise the passive vocalism to avert mentioning who is responsible for certain actions.

Then when is it OK to use the passive?

Sometimes the passive voice is the best choice. Here are a few instances when the passive vox is quite useful:

ane. To emphasize an object. Take a wait at this example:

One hundred votes are required to laissez passer the bill.

This passive judgement emphasizes the number of votes required. An agile version of the sentence ("The bill requires 100 votes to pass") would put the accent on the bill, which may be less dramatic.

2. To de-emphasize an unknown subject/histrion. Consider this example:

Over 120 dissimilar contaminants take been dumped into the river.

If you don't know who the actor is—in this case, if you lot don't actually know who dumped all of those contaminants in the river—then you may need to write in the passive. But remember, if y'all do know the actor, and if the clarity and pregnant of your writing would do good from indicating him/her/it/them, then use an active construction. Yet consider the third case.

iii. If your readers don't need to know who's responsible for the action.

Here'due south where your pick can be difficult; some instances are less clear than others. Endeavour to put yourself in your reader's position to anticipate how he/she volition react to the way yous have phrased your thoughts. Here are two examples:

(passive)Baby Sophia was delivered at 3:xxx a.chiliad. yesterday.

and (active)Dr. Susan Jones delivered infant Sophia at three:30 a.m. yesterday.

The first sentence might be more advisable in a birth announcement sent to family and friends—they are not likely to know Dr. Jones and are much more interested in the "object"(the baby) than in the player (the doctor). A hospital report of yesterday's events might exist more than probable to focus on Dr. Jones' role.

Summary of strategies

Identify

Wait for the passive voice: "to be" + a by participle (usually, but non ever, catastrophe in "-ed")
If y'all don't run across both components, motility on.
Does the sentence depict an action? If and then, where is the thespian? Is he/she/it in the grammatical subject position (at the front of the sentence) or in the object position (at the end of the sentence, or missing entirely)?
Does the sentence cease with "by…"? Many passive sentences include the actor at the stop of the sentence in a "by" phrase, like "The ball was hit by the player" or "The shoe was chewed up past the dog." "By" past itself isn't a conclusive sign of the passive voice, but it tin can prompt you to accept a closer await.

Evaluate

Is the doer/actor indicated? Should you indicate him/her/information technology?
Does it actually matter who's responsible for the action?
Would your reader inquire you to analyze a sentence because of an issue related to your use of the passive?
Practice y'all use a passive construction in your thesis statement?
Practise you use the passive as a crutch in summarizing a plot or history, or in describing something?
Do you want to emphasize the object?

Revise

If you decide that your sentence would be clearer in the agile voice, switch the sentence around to make the discipline and actor one. Put the thespian (the one doing the activeness of the judgement) in front of the verb.

Towards agile thinking and writing

We encourage you to keep these tips in listen as you revise. While you lot may be able to utilize this advice every bit you write your first draft, that's non necessarily e'er possible. In writing, clarity often comes when yous revise, non on your first effort. Don't worry about the passive if that stress inhibits you in getting your ideas downwardly on paper. But do expect for it when you revise. Actively make choices about its proper place in your writing. There is nothing grammatically or otherwise "incorrect" about using the passive phonation. The cardinal is to recognize when y'all should, when you shouldn't, and when your instructor just doesn't want you to. These choices are yours. We hope this handout helps yous to make them.

Works consulted and suggested reading

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resource on the handout'due south topic, and nosotros encourage you to practise your own enquiry to discover additional publications. Please practise non utilize this listing as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style yous are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial. We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. 2010. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers, 6th ed. New York: Longman.

Baron, Dennis E. 1989. "The Passive Voice Tin can Be Your Friend." In Declining Grammar and Other Essays on the English Vocabulary, 17-22. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers.

Hjortshoj, Keith. 2001. The Transition to Higher Writing. New York: Bedford/St Martin'due south.

Lanham, Richard A. 2006. Revising Prose, 5th ed. New York: Pearson Longman.

Orwell, George. 1968. "Politics and the English." In The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, edited past Ian Angus and Sonia Orwell, 4: 127-140. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Javanovich.

Rosen, Leonard J., and Laurence Behrens. 2000. The Allyn and Bacon Handbook, 4th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Strunk, William, and E.B. White. 2000. The Elements of Style, fourth ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Trimble, John R. 2000. Writing With Fashion, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Williams, Joseph, and Joseph Bizup. 2017. Manner: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, twelfth ed. Boston: Pearson.

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