I feel like I talk about this subject a lot.
Before I begin, I’d like to provide a relevant background story.
My dad, an engineer, worked at an aerospace company until he retired. He’s one of those people who are TOO smart. Like… Sheldon Cooper smart. I vividly remember dreading asking him for help with my mathematics because he would take HOURS explaining ONE PROBLEM to me. The rules for these tutoring sessions were:
- Make sure Dad has scrap paper to work on.
- Make sure Dad has a pencil or pen to use.
- Don’t ask Dad unnecessary questions, Sarah, unless you want to spend the rest of your life on that chair.
- Cry.
I sometimes think this is how our sessions go:
My dad got two master’s degrees for fun, guys.
Anyway, he would sometimes wake my brother and me at one o’clock in the morning to go watch a rocket launch at some military base out in Timbuktu. It was cool, sometimes, but I had school that day and we wouldn’t get home until close to four o’clock in the morning. In this time, he would review a document I later found out was written by one of the technical writers at the company. I could audibly hear my dad groan and irritably say (loudly), “Quit using the passive voice! Tell me EXACTLY what you’re doing! Don’t beat around the bush!”
Meanwhile, I was staring at the military guys like:
It wasn’t until I was in high school that I would begin noticing how often my dad would get upset over this “passive voice.” I was becoming more interested in English at the time, so I asked him what he meant.
Active voice highlighted the logical flow of action in a sentence. This made the message clear and direct. The passive voice, according to my dad, adds too many filler words that mask the main idea of the sentence.
I understood what he was saying, but I didn’t grasp why my sentences were always passive. My professor provided us with a guide to discern the two voices. She said the passive voice uses state-of-being verbs (am, are, is, were, be, been, being) and past-tense phrases (had been …). I use these ALL the time because that’s how I normally speak! Here’s an example:
The game was won. (Passive.)
We won the game. (Active.)
Both sentences indicate that a game was won; however, the active tells us WHO won the game unlike the passive. The “who” is the “actor” in the sentence, according to my professor. The active voice uses an “actor” and verbs that show action. Let’s break down the previous example:
We = “actor”
won = action verb
So, should we never use the passive, then? No, there are times where the passive voice is preferable. News and scientific articles sometimes use the passive voice to direct the reader’s focus and to maintain objectivity, especially to avoid misleading the readers. An example could be:
Scientists categorized Pluto as a “dwarf planet.” (Active.)
The status of Pluto has been categorized as a “dwarf planet.” (Passive).
In every other case, especially for academic purposes, use the active voice! I challenge you to start noticing if you’re writing in an active or passive voice! It takes a bit of practice to discipher!
See you next week, folks.
~Servus~
