” Harsh immigration laws deprive poorer people of opportunities.”Īctually, they reflect the desires of the American people, something which the government hasn’t been paying attention to lately. Okay, my comments are not going to be on topic, but I felt impelled to share them anyway: You can keep from falling into this trap by being conscious of your use of dummy subjects (it and there) and “be” verbs. Many writers–especially beginners–rely too heavily on passive construction, allowing their prose to become limp and lazy. The trick is knowing when to use active voice, and when passive voice is more effective. The action (the killer’s conviction) was more important than the subject of the sentence (the jury).

In Hale’s headline example, we can see that the sentence was better served by the passive construction. One syntactically challenged slot editor at the Oakland Tribune, sticking adamantly to a policy demanding the active voice, changed the screaming, above-the-fold headline “I-580 killer convicted” to “Jury convicts I-580 killer” (which screamed less loudly, since the stretched-out phrase required a smaller type). Writers and editors can get too literal-minded about “eschewing the stationary passive.” They forget that the passive voice does exist for a reason.

In Sin and Syntax, Hale gives us this example: As commenter Bill G pointed out, the dummy subject it is necessary in describing weather phenomenon ( it is raining). That said, you still have to be careful not to overdo it. Novices tend to rely on is and other static verbs and lose momentum by stumbling into the passive voice. Hale warns against relying too heavily on is and are (and “to be” in all its forms): As Zinsser says, “active verbs push hard and passive verbs tug fitfully.” Using an active verb helps make the sentence more vivid and precise does your subject walk, or does he saunter? Does she fall, or does she stumble? It’s also a matter of making your words work for you. If you can say something with fewer words, you probably should. In part, the use of active voice over passive voice is a matter of word economy and simplicity. President Bush has proposed starting a worker program for the illegal immigrants. State Department officials estimate the number of illegal immigrants at from 12 to 20 million. Harsh immigration laws deprive poorer people of opportunities. In each of these examples, the passive voice construction gives us unnecessary words and clunky sentences that can be easily revised: Talks have been conducted on the subject of starting a worker program for the illegal immigrants. The poorer people were deprived of their opportunities.ĭocuments were cited to prove that an estimated 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants have been admitted to the United States. Take these examples from student research papers: In most (but not all) cases, the passive construction is longer, clunkier, and more vague. “The difference between an active-verb style and a passive-verb style–in clarity and vigor–is the difference between life and death for a writer.” Zinsser says that passive voice should be used sparingly–only when there’s no way around it. In the second example, the ball (rather than Jason) becomes the most important component of the sentence. (The helping verbs has or have can also appear in a passive verb: the ball has been thrown.)Ī writer may choose to use the passive voice in order to emphasize one thing over another. Verbs in the passive voice have two parts: some form of the verb “to be” and a past participle form of the action verb: was thrown. “The ball” is the subject and it is being acted upon. In a passive sentence, the subject of the sentence is acted upon rather than performing the action, as in: The ball was thrown by Jason. In most sentences, we have a subject performing an action. active sentence construction, I turn to two books that should be staples in any writer’s library: William Zinsser’s On Writing Well, and Constance Hale’s Sin and Syntax.įirst, let’s review what passive voice is. Here at Daily Writing Tips, Michael has written about passive writing, and I recently wrote about dummy subjects, but it looks like there’s still some confusion about passive voice and its use.įor more on passive vs. English teachers like myself love to warn new writers against the evils of passive voice.

Active vs passive voice script