Transcript Passive/Active voice grammar

Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
Passive vs. Active Voice
Engl 3365
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
What is “voice”
and why should you care?
Some detailed explanation for what
grammatical “voice” is, why y’all often use
awkward passive voice sentences, and how
to edit this effectively.
This slideshow will help you if:
You get a lot of “awk” or especially “awk pass”
comments on your writing.
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
ACTIVE and PASSIVE Voice
“Voice” indicates the relation of the subject to
the action of the verb
SomeTHING is ACTING on someTHING
SUBJECT / ACTION / OBJECT
Jack Bauer
defeated
the evil president.
Voice can be active or passive
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
In active voice:



The subject is CLEARLY doing the action
The subject is emphasized more than the object
The subject MUST be stated
Ex:
The students listened carefully to the lecture.
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
In passive voice:



The subject sounds like it is being acted upon
The subject takes a back seat to the object
The object MUST be stated
Ex:
The lecture was listened to carefully by the students.
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
Some more examples:
Active
Jack defeated the evil President.
Subject: Jack
Necessary to the action: HECK YES!
Passive
The evil President was defeated by Jack.
Subject: Jack
Necessary to the action: not really
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
How to identify ACTIVE & PASSIVE voice
1.
Find the main action in the sentence
2.
Find the main subject that’s doing the main action
No main subject? The sentence is passive voice!
3.
Cut out the main subject and read out loud
Complete sentence? The sentence is passive voice!
Incomplete sentence? The sentence is active voice!
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
WHY
passive voice is awkward
Passive NOT GOOD for emphasizing subject
The terrorist threat was defeated. (by Jack).
Passive generally makes writing LESS CLEAR
Jack Bauer shouldn’t be threatened. (by what?)
One shouldn’t threaten Jack Bauer. (“one”=who?)
The evil president shouldn’t threaten Jack. (A-HA!)
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
When to use which voice?
To emphasize the performer (subject) of the
action, USE ACTIVE VOICE.
To write in everyday conversational language,
USE ACTIVE VOICE.
To hide the performer (subject) of the action or
to emphasize the receiver (object) of the
action, use the passive voice.
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
Rule of Thumb
Generally, always use ACTIVE VOICE
active voice conveys MORE INFORMATION
active voice uses FEWER WORDS
active voice is HOW PEOPLE NORMALLY TALK
ONLY use passive voice for a VERY GOOD reason
for ex, if you want to DE-EMPHASIZE, HIDE, or
DON’T KNOW information
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
ONE reason to use PASSIVE voice:
Reason #1
You want to emphasize the object (receiver) of
the action more than the performer.
Example:
Kristen was presented with an award. (by the president.)
The president presented Kristen with an award.
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
TWO reason to use PASSIVE voice:
Reason #2
You want to hide the subject (performer) of
the action.
Example:
The cable was broken. (by our group of engineers.)
Our group of engineers broke the cable.
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
THREE reason to use PASSIVE voice:
Reason #3
You simply don’t know who the performer is
or was.
Example:
The cave was discovered in 1929.
Someone discovered the cave in 1929.
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
Practice
Change these to the opposite voice:
1.
The “Bauer 9i” program was released by
Oracle today.
2.
The test was failed by half the engineering
students.
Copyright 2012 Art Fricke
Practice
Change these to the opposite voice:
1.
The instructor wrote the lecture.
2.
The president reported that the weapons
were not found.