Before detecting the passive voice and addressing how to change it to active, consider why you should care.
Active verbs will improve your writing (most of the time) because
- active verbs declare who or what is (or should be) performing the action; you avoid confusion, guesswork, or dodging responsibility
- active verbs make your writing flow smoothly; readers will easily get the ideas you want to convey
- sentences constructed in the active voice usually require fewer words; you want to aim to write concisely!
How to Identify Passive
As a reader, if you can’t identify the doer of the action—the subject—the sentence has likely been constructed in the passive voice. Even when the subject is clear, two clues help you identify passive use: (1) the word “by” and (2) variations of the verb “to be.”
Consider these sentences:
Passive—“The juicy watermelon was eaten by the boy.”
Active—“The boy chomped into the watermelon’s juicy belly.”
Passive—“Employees are seen by their managers as responsive and enthusiastic.”
Active—“Managers see their employees as responsive and enthusiastic.”
In addition, passive verbs can foster weasel-like communication. They may be used to hide who’s responsible for an action, thus evading accountability rather than declaring it. For example, if a contract states “the rules for the homeowners will be enforced” but doesn’t note who will enforce those rules, what’s the result? Ambiguity. Confusion. Inaction.
How to Identify Active
The pattern for an active sentence is typically “subject + verb + direct object.” The direct object is the recipient of the action—that is, what or whom the verb affects.
Example: The employees (subject) implement (verb) the new strategy (object).
Who’s doing the action of implementing the new strategy? The employees. Thus, it’s clear the employees are accountable for the action.
Your Turn
Notice the passive construction in the following sentence and rewrite it, making sure to use an active verb. (Hint: You’ll need to make up a subject.)
Passive: This policy is being implemented in an effort to streamline our process.
Active: ___________________________________
Barbara McNichol is a nonfiction editor, who works with authors, speakers, and business professionals to add power to their pen through the written word. Barbara wrote Word Trippers: The Ultimate Source for Choosing the Perfect Word When It Really Matters. She offers helpful writing tips weekly and a course to take your writing and editing to the next level: “WordShops: Strengthen Everything You Write.”
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