Tips for writing in active voice

A person who writes in active voice will communicate more directly, clearly, and concisely. But a person may draft sentences in passive voice and then need to change them into active voice through editing. Here’s an example:

Passive: The woman was bitten by the dog.

Active: The dog bit the woman.

When editing your writing, here are a few clues to help you identify passive voice:

• Look for a “by” phrase (e.g., “by the dog” in the example above). If you find one, the sentence may be in the passive voice.

• Look for other prepositional phrases. Writing in passive voice tends to use more words to describe an action, e.g. with, of, from,

  • Passive: These windows were not cleaned with detergent.

  • Active: I did not use detergent to clean the windows.

• If the subject of the sentence is somewhat anonymous, see if you can use a general term, such as “researchers,” or “the study,” or “experts in this field.”

  • Passive: We were assured that the system would be operational by Monday.

  • Active: The IT Department assured us that the system would be operational by Monday.

We would love to teach you other ways to change passive voice to active voice through our business writing online courses at www.theessentialpencil.com