![]() ![]() Adrian was mourned by Rocky and Pauley, until Pauley died too.Potions was Harry’s least favorite class.Take a look at the following examples, and see if you can identify the passive and active voice: Here are the clues:Ĭlue 1: What’s being described? Is the emphasis on the person acting, or on what’s being done?Ĭlue 2: Does the sentence end with “by”? If your sentence ends with a phrase that includes “by”, it probably is passive. When you read your given sentences, you’re going to look for the options that are written in active voice and the ones that are written in passive voice. There are three tactics to use to figure out if you need to revise to the active voice: Name It, Weigh It, Change It. Look no further! We’re going to cover tactics for active voice writing, and a method to revise passive voice to active voice. (For a refresher on when you won’t use the active voice, see “ The Voice”.) But, if you are new to revising you might not sure what the best route is to getting to clear writing in the active voice. The expansion was supposed to happen last year but was delayed because of a tax shortfall.Īgain, there are exceptions to the rule, but media writers should use active voice in most sentences.Most of the SHSAT revisions for voice will be turning the passive voice into the active voice. The school board voted last night to expand Dunbar Elementary School. The passive voice is also used when continuing a thought or creating a flow: This is especially true in broadcast news writing:Īn unidentified body was found in the woods just before dawn today. The passive voice can occasionally be helpful when the writer wants to emphasize the action or object rather than who performed the action. The passive voice is used in certain situations, though.In journalistic writing, the active voice is preferred.Now, here are the same two sentences in passive voice: They use passive voice in certain situations, though.In journalistic writing, journalists prefer active voice.Consider how you would rewrite each sentence and then turn each card for a suggested revision.įor a quick review, let’s start with two sentences in active voice: ![]() The following flip-card set gives you six sentences in passive voice. You should now be ready to practice converting problematic sentences from passive to active voice. ![]() The man was arrested by police at his home. The football was caught by the tight end. Other telltale signs of a passive sentence are the words “by” and “to.” Here are the other two examples in passive voice. To help determine whether a sentence is passive, look for variations of the verb be, such as am, is, was, were, are and been. What do you notice? Is the action harder to follow and the sentence a bit wordier?īreaking down the sentence structure, the direct object becomes the subject, the subject becomes the direct object and the verb needs a helping verb, was.Helping verbs are often a sign that a sentence is passive. The car was driven to the school by the teenager. The police (subject) arrested (verb) the suspect (direct object) at his home.įor a comparison, let’s change the first sentence to the passive voice. The police arrested the suspect at his home. The quarterback (subject) threw (verb) the football (direct object ) to the tight end. The quarterback threw the football to the tight end. Is there any doubt about who was driving the car or what was happening? In this example, active voice can highlight the action from the subject (doer) to the direct object (receiver): the teenager drove the car. The teenager (subject) drove (verb) the car (direct object) to school. The most common pattern for active voice is Subject-Verb-Direct Object. In a previous chapter, you studied common sentence patterns. In active voice, the subject does something, while in the passive voice, something is being done to the subject. It tightens text by focusing attention on the subject and the action. It is more action-focused in driving the narrative forward. The active voice is concise, clear, descriptive, and easy to understand. There is a time and place for passive voice, but its usage is limited. Journalists (subject) use (verb) active voice (direct object). When writing, journalists use the active voice. ![]()
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