i am reading the essay now passive voice

Active-Passive Voice Converter

Boost your SEO and communicate more clearly by switching between active and passive voices seamlessly. Enhances readability and improve quality in a matter of seconds.

Instructions

1. Enter the existing text in the designated area.

2. Choose the desired output: active or passive voice.

3. [Optional] Select output length from the drop-down menu.

4. Click "Change Voice"

5. Paste the generated copy into a document or rewrite your copy using our paraphrasing tool.

💡Pro Tip: Break down complex sentences into simpler ones before converting voice.

What is Active and Passive Voice?

Active and passive voice are two different ways of constructing a sentence. The active voice focuses on the subject of the sentence, who is taking direct action. It provides clear, straightforward sentences where the agent of action is easily identifiable, making it a favored choice in most writing styles.

The passive voice shifts the focal point to the recipient of the action. The subject becomes secondary to the action itself, thus presenting a more impartial narrative. It is extensively used in scientific and formal writing where the primary focus is the action, not the doer.

How to Identify Active and Passive Voice?

Active Voice: In active voice, the subject performs the action. It's direct and concise.

Example: "The chef (subject) prepared (action) a delicious meal."

Passive Voice: In passive voice, the subject receives the action. It's indirect and often used when the doer of the action is less important.

Example: "A delicious meal (subject) was prepared (action) by the chef."

Advanced Tip: To identify passive voice, look for forms of "to be" (e.g., was, were) followed by the past participle (e.g., prepared). In active voice, the subject acts on the object, making it easier to spot.

How to Convert Sentences From Active Voice to Passive Voice

Step 1: Identification of Subject, Object, and Verb

A sentence usually comprises the doer (subject), the action (verb), and the receiver (object). In "John reads a book," 'John' is the subject, 'reads' is the verb, and 'a book' is the object. Recognizing these essential components of a sentence is the first step to getting your transformations right.

Step 2: Reposition the Subject-Object Placement

You need to reverse the subject's and object's roles to convert an active voice sentence to passive voice. That means the object becomes the sentence's new subject, and the subject becomes a part of the sentence after the verb.

Taking the same example, the sentence changes to "The book is read by John."

Step 3: Alter Verb Form

The verb in a passive voice sentence typically involves a form of 'be' (is, am, are, was, were) followed by a past participle. So, 'reads' in active voice changes to 'is read' in passive voice.

Step 4: Include Preposition

When the original subject is included in the passive sentence, it is usually introduced by a preposition like 'by'. For example, 'by John' in our previous illustration. However, if the focus of your sentence is the action rather than the doer, you can omit this prepositional phrase.

To recap, the original sentence "John reads a book." is coverted to "The book is read by John" in passive voice.

When to Use A Sentence Voice Changer?

Use passive to active voice sentence converter when:.

1. You want to emphasize the action itself rather than the doer.

2. The doer of the action is unknown or unimportant.

3. Keeping the focus consistent throughout a series of sentences.

4. Avoid putting responsibility on a specific person or group.

5. To sound objective, scientific, technical, or logical.

Passive to Active Voice Example

Passive Voice: "The cake was baked by John."

Active Voice: "John baked the cake."

In the passive voice sentence, the subject (the cake) is acted upon by the verb. The primary attention is on the action done to the subject. In the active voice sentence, the subject (John) is performing the action of the verb. The primary attention shifts to who is doing the action.

Use Active to Passive Voice Sentence Converter When:

1. You want to emphasize the doer of the action.

2. Writing clear and concise instructions.

3. Avoiding ambiguity.

4. Writing non-scientific content.

Active to Passive Voice Example

Active Voice: "John ate the apple."

Passive Voice: "The apple was eaten by John."

In the active voice sentence, the subject (John) is the one doing the action (eating). In the passive voice sentence, the subject (The apple) is the one being acted upon, and the actor (John) is mentioned at the end of the sentence.

Who Benefits From Converting Sentence Voice?

Converting sentences between active and passive voice benefits a wide array of individuals.

1. Writers, editors, linguists, and students studying language or literature can enhance their craft and comprehension.

2. Professionals in marketing or PR sectors can critically analyze text, heightening their ability to produce persuasive content.

3. SEO specialists can optimize content, making it more engaging and search-engine friendly.

How to Make the Most of Active Passive Sentence Voice Changer?

Start by understanding the power of structure in your sentence. Don't merely convert your text; use this tool as an opportunity to refine your content, enriching your writing with diversity in sentence formation.

Apply variety by alternating between active and passive voices, enhancing your writing style and engaging your readers more effectively. Modify the sentence length according to your document needs, whether brief sentences for a swift read or lengthy, descriptive ones for detailed insights.

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Sentence Voice Changer FAQs

Is an ai sentence voice converter reliable.

Our AI sentence voice converter is highly reliable, guaranteeing consistent and accurate results for your writing needs. The tool is trained on massive datasets of text and code, which allows them to accurately identify and convert sentences between active and passive voice.

Is the copy generated plagiarism-free?

The content produced by our sentence voice converter tool is entirely plagiarism-free, ensuring your originality and peace of mind. It uses a variety of techniques to ensure that the output is unique.

Should you use active voice or passive voice in SEO & content marketing?

You should predominantly use active voice in SEO and content marketing as it makes your writing clearer, more direct, and easier to understand. However, passive voice can be used sparingly for variation or when the focus is on the action rather than the actor.

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What Is Passive Voice and How Do I Use It?

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One writing-related question I’ve thought about a lot is why the passive voice is so commonly (over)used. People don’t tend to speak in the passive voice nearly as much as they write in it, after all.

For those of you not lucky enough to be a grammar nerd like I am, here’s a quick terminology review. The sentence, “I read books,” is in active voice; the subject, “I,” is completing an action, “read.” The sentence, “Books are read,” is in passive voice; the subject, “books,” is being affected by the action of the verb, rather than completing the action itself. Passive constructions have some form of the verb “to be” with the main verb.

Most style guides recommend avoiding the passive voice as much as you can, Microsoft Word highlights passive as a grammar error, and students are always finding redlined comments about avoiding the passive on papers they turn in. But many wonder still, why should writers avoid the passive?

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First, the passive voice can be confusing or vague, as in this sentence: “Laws are being discussed to regulate the use of the new technology.” Who is discussing this? It’s better just to write in the active voice: “Members of Congress are discussing regulations for the use of the new technology.”

The use of passive voice can also introduce dangling modifiers, another potential source of confusion. Here’s an example: “To win a tennis match, mental strategy is often used.” The dangling modifier is “to win a tennis match.” It “dangles” because it is not clear who is doing the winning. Grammatically, it seems the mental strategy is the one winning, but logically, we know it must be a person, unmentioned in the sentence. It would be better just to write in the active: “Players often use mental strategy to win a tennis match.”

Writers may use the passive voice to avoid referring to themselves because they want to be vague, even though to do so is imprecise and can even be somewhat dishonest. Academic writers may mistakenly use the passive to avoid the first person (“I” or “we”) because they feel referring to themselves in their work will not seem impartial enough (see Nick’s post on the use of first and third person ).

Politicians may use the passive voice to avoid connecting their names to something they think may come back to bite them later. Think of the classic: “Mistakes were made.” This line has been used by many politicians, including Ulysses Grant and Ronald Reagan, to refer to mistakes by their administrations yet avoid connecting themselves to those mistakes. It’s not so honest and definitely not precise.

There are certain cases in which the passive voice is useful. First, when the actor is not known or is not important, the passive voice is acceptable: “This popular folk song was written in the mid-eighteenth century.” The passive is also useful when a writer wants to emphasize the thing acted on rather than the actor, as in this sentence: “The horses are ridden everyday.” And sometimes an author intends to be vague, especially in fiction writing: “While they were outside, the cake was smashed and the coffeepot was thrown to the floor.”

In general, though, the active voice is much clearer, more concise, and direct: all qualities of effective writing. Use the passive voice only if you need to.

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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 can revise your paper to achieve greater clarity. Some things here may surprise you. We hope this handout will help you to understand the passive voice and allow you to make more informed choices as you write.

So what is the passive voice? First, let’s be clear on what the passive voice isn’t. Below, 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 not a grammatical error. It’s a stylistic issue that pertains to clarity—that is, there are times when using the passive voice can prevent a reader from understanding what you mean.

2. Myth: Any use of “to be” (in any form) constitutes the passive voice.

The passive voice entails more than just using a being verb. Using “to be” can weaken the impact of your writing, but it is occasionally necessary and does not by itself constitute the passive voice.

3. Myth: The passive voice always avoids the first person; if something is in first person (“I” or “we”) it’s also in the active voice.

On the contrary, you can very easily use the passive voice in the first person. Here’s an example: “I was hit by the dodgeball.”

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

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

5. Myth: 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.

Do any of these misunderstandings sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. That’s why we wrote this handout. It discusses how to recognize the passive voice, when you should avoid it, and when it’s OK.

Defining the passive voice

A passive construction occurs when you make the object of an action into the subject of a sentence. 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 by the chicken?

Who is doing the action in this sentence? The chicken is the one doing the action in this sentence, but the chicken is not in the spot where you would expect the grammatical subject to be. Instead, the road is the grammatical subject. The more familiar phrasing (why did the chicken cross the road?) puts the actor in the subject position, the position of doing something—the chicken (the actor/doer) crosses the road (the object). We use active verbs to represent that “doing,” whether it be crossing roads, proposing ideas, making arguments, or invading houses (more on that shortly).

Once you know what to look for, passive constructions are easy to spot. Look for a form of “to be” (is, are, am, was, were, has been, have been, had been, will be, will have been, being) followed by a past participle. (The past participle is a form of the verb that typically, but not always, ends in “-ed.” Some exceptions to the “-ed” rule are words like “paid” (not “payed”) and “driven.” (not “drived”).

Here’s a sure-fire formula for identifying the passive voice:

form of “to be” + past participle = passive voice

For example:

The metropolis has been scorched by the dragon’s 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 “have” or “be” is passive! Forms of the word “have” can do several different things in English. For example, in the sentence “John has to study all afternoon,” “has” is not part of a past-tense verb. It’s a modal verb, like “must,” “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 “be” are not always passive, either—”be” can be the main verb of a sentence that describes a state of being, rather than an action. For example, the sentence “John is a good student” is not passive; “is” is simply describing John’s state of being. The moral of the story: don’t assume that any time you see a form of “have” and a form of “to be” together, you are looking at a passive sentence.

Need more help deciding whether a sentence is passive? Ask yourself whether there is an action going on in the sentence. If so, what is at the front of the sentence? Is it the person or thing that does the action? Or is it the person or thing that has the action done to it? In a passive sentence, the object of the action will be in the subject position at the front of the sentence. As discussed above, the sentence will also contain a form of be and a past participle. If the subject appears at all, it will usually be at the end of the sentence, often in a phrase that starts with “by.” Take a look at this example:

The fish was caught by the seagull.

If we ask ourselves whether there’s an action, the answer is yes: a fish is being caught. If we ask what’s at the front of the sentence, the actor or the object of the action, it’s the object: the fish, unfortunately for it, got caught, and there it is at the front of the sentence. The thing that did the catching—the seagull—is at the end, after “by.” There’s a form of be (was) and a past participle (caught). This sentence is passive.

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

The dragon has scorched the metropolis with his fiery breath.

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

To repeat, the key to identifying the passive voice is to look for both a form of “to be” and a past participle, which usually, but not always, ends in “-ed.”

Clarity and meaning

The primary reason why your instructors frown on the passive voice is that they often have to guess what you mean. Sometimes, the confusion is minor. Let’s look again at that sentence from a student’s paper on Homer’s The Odyssey:

Like many passive constructions, this sentence lacks explicit reference to the actor—it doesn’t tell the reader who or what invaded Penelope’s house. The active voice clarifies things:

After suitors invaded Penelope’s house, 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 active voice. They want you to specify who or what is doing the action. Compare the following two examples from an anthropology paper on a Laotian village to see if you agree.

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

(active)  The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party set up a new system of drug control laws.

Here’s another example, from the same paper, that illustrates the lack of precision that can accompany the passive voice:

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

And a few pages later:

Plus, marketing links were being established.

In both paragraphs, the writer never specifies the actors for those two actions (Who did the gender training? 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 example, once again from that paper on The Odyssey, typifies another instance where an instructor might desire more 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’s difficult to tell, but the rest of that paragraph suggests that the student does not consider Penelope a hero (the topic of the paper). The reader might also conceivably think that the student is referring to critics, scholars, or modern readers of The Odyssey. One might argue that the meaning comes through here—the problem is merely stylistic. Yet style affects how your reader understands your argument and content. Awkward or unclear style prevents your reader from appreciating the ideas that are so clear to you when you write. Thus knowing how your reader might react enables you to make more effective choices when you revise. So after you identify instances of the passive, you should consider whether your use of the passive inhibits clear understanding of what you mean.

Summarizing history or literary plots with the passive voice: don’t be a lazy thinker or writer!

With the previous section in mind, you should also know that some instructors proclaim that the passive voice signals sloppy, lazy thinking. These instructors argue that writers who overuse the passive voice have 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 as equals.

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

It is especially important to be sure that your thesis statement is clear and precise, so think twice before using the passive voice in your thesis.

In papers where you discuss the work of an author—e.g., a historian or writer of literature—you can also strengthen your writing by not relying on the passive as a crutch when summarizing plots or arguments. Instead of writing:

It is argued that… or  Tom and Huck are portrayed as… or  And then the link between X 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, you can demonstrate a more thorough understanding of the material you discuss.

Scientific writing

All this advice works for papers in the humanities, you might note—but what about 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 it achieves “an objective tone”—for example, by avoiding the first person. To consider scientific writing, let’s break it up into two main types: lab reports and writing about a scientific topic or literature.

Lab reports

Although more and more scientific journals accept or even prefer first-person active voice (e.g., “then we sequenced the human genome”), some of your instructors may want you to remove yourself from your lab report by using the passive voice (e.g., “then the human genome was sequenced” rather than “then we sequenced the human genome”). Such advice particularly 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 employ the passive voice to retain objectivity, you can still use active constructions in some instances and retain your objective stance. Thus it’s useful to keep in mind the sort of active verbs you might use in lab reports. Examples include: support, indicate, suggest, 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 should find out your instructor’s preference regarding your use of the passive in lab reports.

Writing about 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 two main possible tasks in these assignments: reporting what other people have done (their research or experiments) or indicating general scientific knowledge (the body of knowledge coming out of others’ research). Often the two go together. In both instances, you can easily use active constructions even though you might be tempted by the passive—especially if you’re used to writing your own lab reports in the passive.

You decide: Which of these two examples is clearer?

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

or (active)  Research points to heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States.

Alternatively, you could write this sentence with human actors:

Researchers have concluded that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.

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

Here’s one last example from a report that describes angioplasty. Which sounds better 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 it.

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’re writing in, when you use the passive voice, you risk conveying to your reader a sense of uncertainty and imprecision regarding your writing and thinking. The key is to know when your instructor wants you to use the passive voice. For a more general discussion of writing in the sciences , see our handout.

“Swindles and perversions”

Before we discuss a few instances when the passive might be preferable, we should mention one of the more political uses of the passive: to hide blame or obscure responsibility. You wouldn’t do this, but you can learn how to become a critic of those who exhibit what George Orwell included among the “swindles and perversions” of writing. For example:

Mistakes were made.

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

By becoming critically aware of how others use language to shape clarity and meaning, you can learn how better to revise your own work. Keep Orwell’s swindles and perversions in mind as you read other writers. Because it’s easy to leave the actor out of passive sentences, some people use the passive voice to avoid mentioning who is responsible for certain actions.

So when is it OK to use the passive?

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

1. To emphasize an object. Take a look at this example:

One hundred votes are required to pass the bill.

This passive sentence emphasizes the number of votes required. An active version of the sentence (“The bill requires 100 votes to pass”) would put the emphasis on the bill, which may be less dramatic.

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

Over 120 different contaminants have been dumped into the river.

If you don’t know who the actor is—in this case, if you 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 you do know the actor, and if the clarity and meaning of your writing would benefit from indicating him/her/it/them, then use an active construction. Yet consider the third case.

3. If your readers don’t need to know who’s responsible for the action.

Here’s where your choice can be difficult; some instances are less clear than others. Try to put yourself in your reader’s position to anticipate how they will react to the way you have phrased your thoughts. Here are two examples:

(passive)  Baby Sophia was delivered at 3:30 a.m. yesterday.

and (active)  Dr. Susan Jones delivered baby Sophia at 3:30 a.m. yesterday.

The first sentence might be more appropriate 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 actor (the doctor). A hospital report of yesterday’s events might be more likely to focus on Dr. Jones’ role.

Summary of strategies

• Look for the passive voice: “to be” + a past participle (usually, but not always, ending in “-ed”)
• If you don’t see both components, move on.
• Does the sentence describe an action? If so, where is the actor? 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 end with “by…”? Many passive sentences include the actor at the end of the sentence in a “by” phrase, like “The ball was hit by the player ” or “The shoe was chewed up by the dog .” “By” by itself isn’t a conclusive sign of the passive voice, but it can prompt you to take a closer look.
• Is the doer/actor indicated? Should you indicate him/her/them/it?
• Does it really matter who’s responsible for the action?
• Would your reader ask you to clarify a sentence because of an issue related to your use of the passive?
• Do you use a passive construction in your thesis statement?
• Do you use the passive as a crutch in summarizing a plot or history, or in describing something?
• Do you want to emphasize the object?
• If you decide that your sentence would be clearer in the active voice, switch the sentence around to make the subject and actor one. Put the actor (the one doing the action of the sentence) in front of the verb.

Towards active thinking and writing

We encourage you to keep these tips in mind as you revise. While you may be able to employ this advice as you write your first draft, that’s not necessarily always possible. In writing, clarity often comes when you revise, not on your first try. Don’t worry about the passive if that stress inhibits you in getting your ideas down on paper. But do look for it when you revise. Actively make choices about its proper place in your writing. There is nothing grammatically or otherwise “wrong” about using the passive voice. The key is to recognize when you should, when you shouldn’t, and when your instructor just doesn’t want you to. These choices are yours. We hope this handout helps you to make them.

Works consulted and suggested reading

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you 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 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 College Writing . New York: Bedford/St Martin’s.

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

Orwell, George. 1968. “Politics and the English Language.” In The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell , edited by 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 , 4th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

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

Williams, Joseph, and Joseph Bizup. 2017. Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace , 12th ed. Boston: Pearson.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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This handout will explain the difference between active and passive voice in writing. It gives examples of both, and shows how to turn a passive sentence into an active one. Also, it explains how to decide when to choose passive voice instead of active.

In a sentence using passive voice , the subject is acted upon; he or she receives the action expressed by the verb. The agent performing the action may appear in a "by the..." phrase or may be omitted.

The dog is acting upon the sentence subject (the boy), meaning it uses the passive voice.

This example sentence includes the passive voice because the subject (research) is being acted upon (presented) by another person (Pooja).

This is an example of the passive voice.

The subject of the passive voice sentence performs the action expressed in the verb in this example.

Reasons to Avoid Passive Voice

Sometimes the use of passive voice can create awkward sentences, as in the last example above. Also, overuse of passive voice throughout an essay can cause your prose to seem flat and uninteresting. In scientific writing, however, passive voice is more readily accepted since using it allows one to write without using personal pronouns or the names of particular researchers as the subjects of sentences (see the third example above). This practice helps to create the appearance of an objective, fact-based discourse because writers can present research and conclusions without attributing them to particular agents. Instead, the writing appears to convey information that is not limited or biased by individual perspectives or personal interests.

Recognizing Passive Voice

You can recognize passive-voice expressions because the verb phrase will always include a form of be, such as am, is, was, were, are, or been . The presence of a be-verb, however, does not necessarily mean that the sentence is in passive voice. Another way to recognize passive-voice sentences is that they may include a "by the..." phrase after the verb; the agent performing the action, if named, is the object of the preposition in this phrase.

Helpful Hint

You can recognize passive voice because the verb phrase will include a form of be (was, am, are, been, is). Don't assume that just because there is a form of 'be' that the sentence is passive, however. Sometimes a prepositional phrase like "by the" in the sentences above indicates that the action is performed on the subject, and that the sentence is passive.

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Passive Voice: When to Use It and When to Avoid It

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What is passive voice?

In English, all sentences are in either “active” or “passive” voice:

active: Werner Heisenberg formulated the uncertainty principle in 1927. passive: The uncertainty principle was formulated by Werner Heisenberg in 1927.

In an active sentence, the person or thing responsible for the action in the sentence comes first. In a passive sentence, the person or thing acted on comes first, and the actor is added at the end, introduced with the preposition “by.” The passive form of the verb is signaled by a form of “to be”: in the sentence above, “was formulated” is in passive voice while “formulated” is in active.

In a passive sentence, we often omit the actor completely:

The uncertainty principle was formulated in 1927.

When do I use passive voice?

In some sentences, passive voice can be perfectly acceptable. You might use it in the following cases:

The cave paintings of Lascaux were made in the Upper Old Stone Age. [We don’t know who made them.]

An experimental solar power plant will be built in the Australian desert. [We are not interested in who is building it.]

Mistakes were made. [Common in bureaucratic writing!]

Rules are made to be broken. [By whomever, whenever.]

Insulin was first discovered in 1921 by researchers at the University of Toronto. It is still the only treatment available for diabetes.

The sodium hydroxide was dissolved in water. This solution was then titrated with hydrochloric acid.

In these sentences you can count on your reader to know that you are the one who did the dissolving and the titrating. The passive voice places the emphasis on your experiment rather than on you.

Note: Over the past several years, there has been a movement within many science disciplines away from passive voice. Scientists often now prefer active voice in most parts of their published reports, even occasionally using the subject “we” in the Materials and Methods section. Check with your instructor or TA whether you can use the first person “I” or “we” in your lab reports to help avoid the passive.

When should I avoid passive voice?

Passive sentences can get you into trouble in academic writing because they can be vague about who is responsible for the action:

Both Othello and Iago desire Desdemona. She is courted. [Who courts Desdemona? Othello? Iago? Both of them?]

Academic writing often focuses on differences between the ideas of different researchers, or between your own ideas and those of the researchers you are discussing. Too many passive sentences can create confusion:

Research has been done to discredit this theory. [Who did the research? You? Your professor? Another author?]

Some students use passive sentences to hide holes in their research:

The telephone was invented in the nineteenth century. [I couldn’t find out who invented the telephone!]

Finally, passive sentences often sound wordy and indirect. They can make the reader work unnecessarily hard. And since they are usually longer than active sentences, passive sentences take up precious room in your paper:

Since the car was being driven by Michael at the time of the accident, the damages should be paid for by him.

Weeding out passive sentences

If you now use a lot of passive sentences, you may not be able to catch all of the problematic cases in your first draft. But you can still go back through your essay hunting specifically for passive sentences. At first, you may want to ask for help from a writing instructor. The grammar checker in your word processor can help spot passive sentences, though grammar checkers should always be used with extreme caution since they can easily mislead you. To spot passive sentences, look for a form of the verb to be in your sentence, with the actor either missing or introduced after the verb using the word “by”:

Poland was invaded in 1939, thus initiating the Second World War. Genetic information is encoded by DNA. The possibility of cold fusion has been examined for many years.

Try turning each passive sentence you find into an active one. Start your new sentence with the actor. Sometimes you may find that need to do some extra research or thinking to figure out who the actor should be! You will likely find that your new sentence is stronger, shorter, and more precise:

Germany invaded Poland in 1939, thus initiating the Second World War. DNA encodes genetic information. Physicists have examined the possibility of cold fusion for many years.

OASIS: Writing Center

Scholarly voice: active and passive voice, active and passive voice.

Active voice and passive voice are grammatical constructions that communicate certain information about an action. Specifically, APA explains that voice shows relationships between the verb and the subject and/or object (see APA 7, Section 4.13). Writers need to be intentional about voice in order to ensure clarity. Using active voice often improves clarity, while passive voice can help avoid unnecessary repetition.  

Active voice can help ensure clarity by making it clear to the reader who is taking action in the sentence. In addition, the active voice stresses that the actor (or grammatical subject) precedes the verb, again, putting emphasis on the subject. Passive voice construction leaves out the actor (subject) and focuses on the relationship between the verb and object.

The order of words in a sentence with active voice is subject, verb, object.

• Active voice example : I conducted a study of elementary school teachers.
• This sentence structure puts the emphasis of the sentence on the subject, clarifying who conducted the study. 
• Passive voice example : A study was conducted of elementary school teachers.
• In this sentence, it is not clear who conducted this study. 

Generally, in scholarly writing, with its emphasis on precision and clarity, the active voice is preferred. However, the passive voice is acceptable in some instances, for example:

• if the reader is aware of who the actor is;
• in expository writing, where the goal of the discussion is to provide background, context, or an in-depth explanation;
• if the writer wants to focus on the object or the implications of the actor’s action; or
• to vary sentence structure.  

Also, much like for anthropomorphism , different writing styles have different preferences. So, though you may see the passive voice used heavily in articles that you read for your courses and study, it does not mean that APA style advocates the same usage.

Examples of Writing in the Active Voice

Here are some examples of scholarly writing in the active voice:

• This is active voice because the subject in the sentence precedes the verb, clearly indicating who (I) will take the action (present).

Example : Teachers conducted a pilot study addressing the validity of the TAKS exam.

• Similarly, teachers (subject) clearly took the action (conducted) in this sentence.

Recognizing the Passive Voice

According to APA, writers should select verb tenses and voice carefully. Consider these examples to help determine which form of the verb is most appropriate:

Example : A study was conducted of job satisfaction and turnover.

• Here, it is not clear who did the conducting. In this case, if the context of the paragraph does not clarify who did the action, the writer should revise this sentence to clarify who conducted the study. 

Example : I conducted a study of job satisfaction and turnover.

• This revised sentence clearly indicates the action taker. Using “I” to identify the writer’s role in the research process is often a solution to the passive voice and is encouraged by APA style (see APA 7, Section 4.16).

Using the past tense of the verb “to be” and the past participle of a verb together is often an indication of the passive voice. Here are some signs to look for in your paper:

• Example : This study was conducted.
• Example : Findings were distributed.

Another indication of passive voice is when the verb precedes the actor in the sentence. Even if the action taker is clearly identified in a passive voice construction, the sentence is usually wordier. Making the actor the grammatical subject that comes before the verb helps to streamline the sentence.

• Issue : Though the verb and the actor (action taker) are clearly identified here, to improve clarity and word economy, the writer could place that actor, Rogers, before the verb.
• More concise active voice revision : Rogers (2016) conducted a study on nursing and turnover.  
• Issue : Here, the actor follows the verb, which reduces emphasis and clarity.
• This revised sentence is in the active voice and makes the actor the subject of the sentence.

Intentional Use of the Passive Voice

Sometimes, even in scholarly writing, the passive voice may be used intentionally and strategically. A writer may intentionally include the subject later in the sentence so as to reduce the emphasis and/or importance of the subject in the sentence. See the following examples of intentional passive voice to indicate emphasis:

Example : Schools not meeting AYP for 2 consecutive years will be placed on a “needs improvement” list by the State’s Department of Education.

• Here, all actors taking actions are identified, but this is in the passive voice as the State’s Department of Education is the actor doing the placing, but this verb precedes the actor. This may be an intentional use of the passive voice, to highlight schools not meeting AYP.
• To write this in the active voice, it would be phrased: “The State’s Department of Education will place schools not meeting AYP for 2 consecutive years on a “needs improvement” list. This sentence places the focus on the State’s Department of Education, not the schools.

Example : Participants in the study were incentivized with a $5 coffee gift card, which I gave them upon completion of their interview.

• As the writer and researcher, I may want to vary my sentence structure in order to avoid beginning several sentences with “I provided…” This example is written in the passive voice, but the meaning is clear.

Using Passive Voice in Scholarly Writing

As noted before, passive voice is allowed in APA style and can be quite appropriate, especially when writing about methods and data collection. However, students often overuse the passive voice in their writing, which means their emphasis in the sentence is not on the action taker. Their writing is also at risk of being repetitive. Consider the following paragraph in which the passive voice is used in each sentence:

A survey was administered . Using a convenience sample, 68 teachers were invited to participate in the survey by emailing them an invitation. E-mail addresses of teachers who fit the requirements for participation were provided by the principal of the school . The teachers were e-mailed an information sheet and a consent form. Responses were collected from 45 teachers… As you can see, the reader has no idea who is performing these actions, which makes the research process unclear. This is at odds with the goal of the methods discussion, which is to be clear and succinct regarding the process of data collection and analysis.

However, if translated entirely to the active voice, clearly indicating the researcher’s role, “I” becomes redundant and repetitive, interrupting the flow of the paragraph:

In this study, I administered a survey. I created a convenience sample of 68 teachers. I invited them to participate in the survey by emailing them an invitation. I obtained e-mail addresses from the principal of the school… “I” is quite redundant here and repetitive for the reader.

The Walden Writing Center suggests that students use “I” in the first sentence of the paragraph . Then, as long as it is clear to the reader that the student (writer) is the actor in the remaining sentences, use the active and passive voices appropriately to achieve precision and clarity (where applicable):

In this study, I administered a survey using a convenience sample. Sixty-eight teachers were invited to participate in the survey. The principal of the school provided me with the e-mail addresses of teachers who fit the requirements for participation. I e-mailed the teachers an information sheet and a consent form. A total of 45 teachers responded …

The use of the passive voice is complicated and requires careful attention and skill. There are no hard-and-fast rules. Using these guidelines, however, should help writers be clearer and more engaging in their writing, as well as achieving the intended purposes.

Remember, use voice strategically. APA recommends the active voice for clarity. However, the passive voice may be used, with intention, to remove the emphasis on the subject and also as a method for varying sentence structure. So, generally write in the active voice, but consider some of the above examples and some uses of the passive voice that may be useful to implement in your writing. Just be sure that the reader is always aware of who is taking the action of the verb.

• For more practice, try our Clarifying the Actor module .

Related Resources

• Principles of Writing: Active and Passive Voice (blog post) APA Style Blog post.

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Module 4: Sentence Structure

Using the passive voice.

There are several different situations where the passive voice is more useful than the active voice. The passive is not “wrong”–you just have to be mindful of when you do or do not use it. Here are some common scenarios where the passive has a use:

• The active voice would be something like this: “Someone had moved the paper.” If you don’t know who the someone was and you want to avoid sounding like you’re blaming someone, the passive allows you to communicate the information about the paper without assigning responsibility or blame to anyone. You may or may not want the vague element of mystery this formulation entails (“ Should I care who moved the paper? Why don’t we know who moved the paper??”). A mood of mystery can be especially helpful in writing fiction, but this passive construction can also signal a more straightforward lack of knowledge.
• Presumably anybody would have gone through the standard procedure for sterilizing the dish in the same way and would also have followed the protocols for adding the bacteria. These cases where the methodology is prescribed and the expectation is that experimenters or researchers or students are following rules that are not individualized  (and that others in different times and places could replicate those actions to test the results) often occur in the natural and social sciences and are why those disciplines often (but not exclusively) employ the passive voice in formal writing.
• Three guesses as to who ripped the paper when the speaker uses this passive formulation! Using the passive puts the focus on the paper’s fate rather than on the person who ripped it, as the culprit is completely left out of the sentence.
• Because of the power of our narrative expectations, which lead us to anticipate that the grammatical subject of a sentence will also be the agent of the action (i.e., that we will be told a.s.a.p. in a sentence the answer to “who does what?”), we automatically focus on the subject of the sentence. Using passive to push someone who isn’t the agent into the subject position is particularly effective if your larger unit of writing (your whole paragraph, or your whole essay) focuses on that person. Here, for example, Clarissa is the heroine of an eponymous eighteenth-century novel; we can almost guarantee that an essay containing this sentence would be more about Clarissa than about the odious but minor character of Mr. Solmes, or even about Clarissa’s family’s mercenary motivations. If most sentences in this essay are active and have Clarissa as both the grammatical subject and the narrative agent, this passive construction will fit more coherently into that whole.
• While the trees hurt Caroline, they didn’t actually do anything. Thus, it makes more sense to have Caroline as the subject rather than saying, “The trees hurt Caroline when she fell into them.” You could say, “Falling into the trees hurt Caroline” (because it’s the action of falling into trees that hurts, not trees in and of themselves), but again, you can guarantee that Caroline was the primary agent (the person performing the action that caused this hurt), and we find narratives clearer when the “who” element of “who does what?” occupies the grammatical subject position in the sentence. Notice that this formulation— Caroline was hurt— essentially renders the past participle an adjective rather than a passive construction. Other examples would include exhausted, astonished , or inebriated – there are many past participles that function like adjectives and would seem strained if you re-worded them into active constructions. How often have you ever heard anyone say, “Alcohol inebriated us” versus “We were inebriated”?

Consider the following instances. In each case, determine why the writers might want to use active or passive voice. Write an example sentence based on their circumstances.

• Antonella made an error in her calculations that ruined an experiment. This error ended up costing both time and materials. She has to write a report to her boss. What might she say about the experiment?
• Isabel is writing a supernatural thriller. Her main character, Liam, notices that his keys aren’t where he left them. How might Isabel word this realization?
• Tiago is writing a cover letter to apply for a new job. He is listing out tasks that he does at his current job. How would he want to word these items?
• An error was made that ended up costing time and resources. The experiment will have to be repeated with new materials.
• Liam’s keys had been moved when he wasn’t looking.
• Something—or someone—had moved Liam’s keys when he wasn’t looking.
• I currently work as a teaching assistant for a linguistics professor. I organize her mail, flagging important items so she knows what needs immediate attention; I aid her in her research, finding interesting articles and studies; and I often help her students when her attention is needed elsewhere.

Using the Passive

Now that we know there are some instances where passive voice is the best choice, how do we use the passive voice to its fullest? The answer lies in writing direct sentences—in passive voice—that have simple subjects and verbs. This way, even if we are deviating from the usual narrative clarity of an agent in the grammatical subject position performing the action represented by the verb, we are still helping our readers to see quickly what our sentences are about. Compare the two sentences below:

• Photomicrographs were taken to facilitate easy comparison of the samples.
• Easy comparison of the samples was facilitated by the taking of photomicrographs.

Both sentences are written in the passive voice, but for most ears the first sentence is more direct and understandable, and therefore preferable. Depending on the context, it does a clearer job of telling us what was done and why it was done. Especially if this sentence appears in the “Experimental” section of a report (and thus readers already know that the authors of the report took the photomicrographs), the first sentence neatly represents what the authors actually did—took photomicrographs—and why they did it—to facilitate easy comparison. “Photomicrographs” is clearly a more useful noun to put in the subject position than “easy comparison of the samples,” which is longer and lacks any specific vocabulary, or “the taking of,” which is so awkward that we call it “turgid.”

Read the following sentences. Are they using the passive effectively? If there are any errors, rewrite the sentences accordingly.

• The machine needs to be reset at 10:23, 11:12, and 11:56 every night.
• The final steps, which need to be finished before the sun sets over the mountains, are going to be completed by Kajuana.
• The difficult task of measuring minute fluctuations in weight was made easier by the use of a new digital scale.
• Yes. In this case, it doesn’t matter who accomplishes the action; it simply needs to be done. If this sentence appears in an academic article, the passive may be even more appropriate, as that style often demands the actor be left out of the sentence.
• Kajuana is going to complete the final steps, which need to be finished before the sun sets over the mountains.
• A new digital scale made it easier to measure minute fluctuations in weight.

The passive voice can also be used following relative pronouns like  that and  which .

• I configured the production computer environment  that was provisioned  for me.
• Adrián’s lab rat loves the treats that are given  to him.
• Brihanna has an album  that was signed  by the Jonas Brothers.

In each of these sentences, it is grammatically sound to omit (or  elide ) the relative pronoun and  to be . Elision is used with a lot of different constructions in English; we use it shorten sentences when things are understood. However, we can only use elision in certain situations, so be careful when removing words! If you aren’t confident about whether you’re eliding or just cutting information, err on the side of caution and leave all the words in place (elisions that cause confusion are a common fault when students need to revise essays to a slightly shorter length and try to shave individual words rather than cut a whole section). You may find these elided sentences more natural:

• I configured the production computer environment  provisioned for me.
• Adrián’s lab rat loves the treats given  to him.
• Brihanna has an album signed by the Jonas Brothers.
• Revision and Adaptation. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Revision and Adaptation. Authored by : Gillian Paku. Provided by : SUNY Geneseo. License : CC BY: Attribution
• The Passive versus Active Voice Dilemma. Authored by : Joe Schall. Provided by : The Pennsylvania State University. Located at : https://www.e-education.psu.edu/styleforstudents/c1_p11.html . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

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How to Recognize Passive Voice

How to fix passive voice in your writing, how to fix passive voice (& improve your writing).

I’ll get straight to the point: “passive voice” is a terrible writing habit.

Don’t believe me? Think back to some of the books you’ve read throughout your life.

Have you ever picked up a book that sounded like this?

Pesticides were discovered in 80% of market fruit by researchers at NYU. Chemical analysis kits were used on all the produce over the course of 2 weeks, and the results were conclusive. The pesticides were known carcinogens. During the subsequent investigation, lasting several months, more than 20 local farms were subjected to the same chemical analysis.

Aside from the fact that most people don’t consider pesticides a riveting topic, passive voice is abundant throughout this paragraph.

It can be tough to recognize passive voice because it’s grammatically correct, and it reads like your average textbook. But that’s the problem—it reads like a boring textbook.

People don’t read boring books.

Look what happens when you rewrite that whole section into active voice:

In the spring of 2010, Stanley Wainwright, Martha Higgins, and Jeremy Gideon assaulted a local grocery store. They weren’t gang members or terrorists. They were researchers from NYU. Armed with chemical kits, they tested all the fruit sold that morning and discovered pesticides on 80% of it. Cancer-causing pesticides. Horrified, they launched a deeper investigation. Over the course of the summer, they infiltrated more than 20 local farms.

Now, the opening lines tell a story, and the researchers are real people. People who are doing things—assaulting grocery stores, testing fruit, launching investigations, etc.

Suddenly, pesticides are much more interesting.

Admittedly, I added a few storytelling techniques too. But that’s part of the magic of active voice: once you start using it, it’s easy to make things even more interesting.

In this post, I’ll dive deeper into why passive voice is bad, showing you how to fix it in your writing as well as how to use it to tell a good story.

But before I do, let me say this:

If you’re still writing your first draft , don’t worry about any of this yet. Just write your book .

But if you’re in the editing stage and want to know how to recognize passive voice, how to avoid it, and how to fix it, this post is for you.

Passive voice is bad—it avoids responsibility

Passive voice is a way of denying responsibility. It’s a way to confuse people and leave out information on purpose (so they might not even notice what’s missing).

“Things were discovered. Kits were used. Farms were investigated.”

Who did all those things? Nobody knows.

Maybe you don’t even know.

That’s the first way to recognize passive voice. Look for the places where you were trying to write around things you don’t know. You probably felt pretty awkward doing it, right?

You’ll find a lot of passive voice in those sections.

“The letters were opened. The flag was raised. The orders were issued.”

“Something was somethinged.”

You can always recognize passive voice if you look for that type of sentence construction. There might be a lot of other stuff around it, but that format’s always hiding in there somewhere:

“At sunrise every morning, the flag was raised by the firehouse rookie.”

There are thousands of ways to fix a passive voice sentence—literally thousands—and they’re all better:

“As the firehouse rookie, I had to raise the flag every morning at sunrise.”

“At sunrise every morning, the rookie raised the flag. The first few months I was at the firehouse, that rookie was a shy kid named Billy Jones.”

“In a firehouse, the day starts at sunrise. The rookie drags his butt out of bed to raise the flag, and everybody else is pretty much praying there won’t be another call before the shift change.”

I’ll go into a lot more depth about fixing passive voice later. For now, notice how none of the fixes sound like a textbook. They all sound like somebody’s talking to you.

We hardly ever use passive voice when we’re just talking. Keep that in mind when you’re looking for it in your writing.

But sometimes … no, it’s still bad

If you read other articles about passive voice, many of them will say it’s okay to use passive voice in certain cases. But I’ll tell you a secret:

They’re all just parroting what some English teacher told them a long time ago, and it’s not true.

You don’t need passive voice.

I’ll prove it with the 4 examples you’ll see most often—ones that other people will tell you are okay.

1. When you don’t know who did the thing you’re talking about

An English teacher might tell you it’s okay to use passive voice if you don’t know who did whatever it is you’re writing about. Here are some common examples people will try to give you:

• The bank was robbed on Tuesday.
• The men were attacked by an unknown assailant.
• The phone lines were cut.

Now, if you can do some research and find out who actually did it, that’s an easy fix. But sometimes nobody knows. Maybe at the time you’re writing, it’s still a mystery.

That’s okay. You can still rewrite every one of them as an active sentence.

• Then, on Tuesday, somebody robbed the bank.
• Some guy jumped them out of nowhere.

The best fix for the third one, the example that the phone lines “were cut,” might depend on the rest of the story. Here are a few options, depending on the situation:

• The phone was dead.
• Someone had cut the line.
• I picked up the phone … nothing. No dial tone. Had someone cut the line?

Every one of those is more interesting than the original.

2. When the doer is irrelevant

Common examples:

• The Empire State Building was completed in 1931.
• The dancer was educated in Paris.
• The computer was refurbished.

Other articles would tell you that it doesn’t matter who built the Empire State Building, who taught the dancer, or who refurbished the computer.

That’s arguable. But even if they’re right, you can still rewrite every one of these passive sentences to be more engaging.

• Those 3,000 workers finished the Empire State Building in 1931.
• The dancer studied in Paris.

The last one is a bit tougher. We probably don’t know who refurbished the computer, and the fact that someone did probably isn’t the point of the story.

So, let’s do more with it and help the story along.

• I bought a refurbished computer in 2007.

That’s not bad. At least now we feel like a story is coming, right? But let’s do even better:

• I didn’t have a lot of money, but I knew my daughter needed a computer. So I scraped together enough cash to buy a refurbished one from some random guy on eBay.

Or, here’s a different story:

• When I started the company, all I had to work with was a desk from Goodwill, a chair I literally found on the sidewalk, and a refurbished computer from the pawnshop across the street.

I’ll walk you through changing passive voice into active voice in a later section. For now, I just want to show you that you don’t need passive voice, no matter what other people might try to tell you.

3. When your focus is on the object of the sentence

This might be the worst one yet. Your focus should be on the reader , and the subject of the sentence should be whatever it needs to be to engage them.

If there’s one actual rule in writing, that’s it: write for the reader.

Here’s the kind of example people often use for “good” passive voice:

• Pesticides were discovered in 80% of supermarket fruit by researchers at NYU.

Sound familiar?

An English teacher would argue the pesticides are the most important thing here, so they should be the grammatical subject of the sentence.

That’s ridiculous. I took that sentence from a writing blog that made that exact claim, and I rewrote it into active voice for the introduction to this post.

4. When you want to be vague about responsibility

This is the worst thing about passive voice and the main reason why I hate it.

Don’t do it.

The most common examples are a lot like the ones we’ve already covered.

• The bank was robbed.
• The men were attacked.
• Mistakes were made.

But there’s one specific situation where Authors use passive voice the most—and it’s because of this very reason.

Non-fiction Authors write about their own experiences. Whether your book is a memoir or it’s teaching other people how to do something, you’re going to use your own experience to help other people.

But it’s really hard to write about times when you feel like you failed. It’s terrifying to put yourself out there as an Author, and that fear can get the best of you.

You’ll start writing things like:

• The office started to get disorganized.
• A few invoices got lost.
• Orders were starting to go out late.

Don’t do that. Instead, face your fear head-on, and remember why you’re writing your book—to help your readers. Be brutally honest in your writing. Own your mistakes, and help your readers do better.

I hired too many people too fast, and I had no idea how to organize it all. The office was a disaster. I didn’t put any real systems in place, and we started losing invoices. We paid a lot of our vendors late, which really hurt our reputation. We were shipping orders out late, too. My dream had become a nightmare. But I didn’t know how to fix it. I went to bed feeling sick every night, and I woke up feeling sick every morning. I was going to lose everything. It was just a matter of time.

That’s another way to recognize passive voice and a good place to look for it: when you’re writing about things you feel embarrassed about.

• It got disorganized. (Nobody did it. It just happened.)
• Invoices got lost. (By nobody in particular.)
• Orders went out late. (But it wasn’t our fault.)

Changing those passive constructions into active voice will make your writing a thousand times better . It will hold your readers’ attention all the way through your book.

1. Always have an “actor” in your mind

One of the best ways to fix passive voice is to figure out why you’re using it in the first place. Are you:

• Not sure who the actor is?
• Nervous about what readers might think of you?
• Something else?

Not sure who the actor is

If you’re not sure who the actor is, ask yourself whether you need to do more research. That stops a lot of bad writing before it happens. Look up the person’s name or get whatever details you need.

That said, if you’re on a roll during your draft phase and you don’t want to break for research, then don’t. Just write. Once you get in the habit of writing in active voice, you’ll find tricks that work for you in that situation.

For example, you might write something like:

• In the spring of 2010, NAME, NAME, and NAME assaulted a local grocery store.
• THE TEAM finally made its first sale almost a year later.

Then, when you’re done with your draft, you can look up what you need and fill those in with actual names.

Nervous about what readers might think of you

This is one of the toughest things about writing, and literally every Author goes through it—all of them. I’ve written New York Times bestsellers, and I still go through it every time.

Because it’s so universal, I’ve written a whole post on facing your fears as an Author. Do what you have to do to confront those fears, and then be brutally honest in your writing.

Write for the people you’re trying to help. Think about how much you want to make a difference in their lives, and keep that in the front of your mind. Make your writing about them , not you.

Something else

Sometimes, it isn’t either of those things. Maybe you’ve just read a ton of textbooks, and your rough draft came out with a lot of passive voice. That’s okay. That’s what editing is for.

For every use of passive voice you find, ask yourself who the story is really about? You? Your team? Someone else? Who’s the main character of the anecdote?

Let’s look at one of the above examples, step by step:

Again, you probably don’t know who refurbished it, and the fact that it’s refurbished probably isn’t the point of the story. So, here’s the question to ask yourself:

• Why is it important to tell the reader that it’s refurbished?

If it isn’t important at all—it’s just a detail you threw in as part of your vomit draft—no problem. Delete the sentence and move on.

But if the reason was to show the reader how little money you had when you started your company, that’s great. That’s the heart of good writing: to help readers relate to the story.

Focus on that. What else about the new company paints that picture? Maybe:

• you got your desk from Goodwill
• you found your chair on the sidewalk
• you bought the computer at a pawnshop
• the pawnshop was across the street, which tells you something about the neighborhood

Put all that together, and you get the example I gave up above:

When you approach the problem of fixing passive voice in the right way, asking yourself why the reader will care, the rest of the storytelling often comes naturally.

2. Stop trying to sound smart (and just tell the truth)

One of the problems with passive voice showing up so much in textbooks is that people start thinking it sounds “smart.” And then they want to sound smart. So they copy all that bad writing.

Don’t try to sound smart. Just write truthfully, in your own voice .

Engaging your reader isn’t about sounding smart. It’s about being honest and vulnerable.

Seriously. People connect immediately to writing that’s honest and vulnerable.

If you want people to love and recommend your book, it’s more important to connect to them than to try to sound a certain way. In fact, connecting is the only thing that matters.

Besides, you’ll have a much easier time writing if you stop trying to sound like someone else and just write however you naturally think.

3. Use active verbs

It’s a lot harder to switch into passive voice if you’re using active verbs—and a lot easier to notice it in your editing.

Passive voice sits back and waits for things to happen. That’s why it’s called passive voice. The problem is right in the name.

Active voice (and active verbs) go out and do things.

• investigate

Now, an English teacher would try to get on me about that. They’d tell you almost any verb can fall victim to active voice, and that’s true.

• The bank was investigated for fraud.

That’s passive voice. But the benefit of an active verb is that it helps you ask the right question: who’s doing the investigating?

• The FBI opened an official fraud investigation.

If you noticed that the bank isn’t in that sentence, good. Sometimes the best way to fix passive voice is to fix things around it too, using the context of the other sentences to help you.

• Thousands of customers lost their life savings. The bank shut down. The FBI opened an official fraud investigation.

It’s short, quick, sharp, and easy to read.

4. Edit it out later (for now, just write)

I’ve said it before, but I’m going to say it again because I can’t stress it enough:

If your natural writing style uses a lot of passive voice, don’t try to fix it while you’re writing.

Don’t edit yourself at all while you’re writing your first draft. You’ll only slow yourself down if you try to change your style while you’re still getting your ideas down. Instead, go back and fix it later.

Once you have your rough draft finished, that’s when you start editing yourself. Do as much as you reasonably can in your self-editing pass , and then hire a great editor .

The Scribe Crew

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