ENG 1131 Lecture 7: Passive and Active Voice
29 Aug 2016
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Active voice: subject performs the action: my horses trampled my neighbour"s front lawn. It only needs to indicate who is receiving the action. It also tends to be less direct and can drain the energy from your writing. Compare: bribes were taken and crimes ignored, the ny city police took bribes and ignored crimes. Use passive voice when: you want to emphasize the person or thing receiving the action. I was struck right in the face by the snowball: you don"t know who performed the action. My purse was stolen: you want to avoid confrontation or want to be indirect. Identify who or what is performing the action. If no one is performing the action, supply an actor. 2: make the actor the subject of the sentence, usually by placing the actor at the beginning of the sentence.
