Using the active voice and the passive voice wisely

Let’s break down what the terms ‘active voice’ and ‘passive voice’ mean – and why it’s important to use the passive voice mindfully. 

Identifying the active voice and passive voice 

Here’s a breakdown of these two sentence structures:  

Active voice example

Passive voice example

Sophia ate the entire cheesecake.  Subject + verb + object   Sophia is the subject of the sentence who is doing the action (eating the cheesecake). This is the structure we mean when talking about using the active voice.

The entire cheesecake was eaten by Sophia.  Object + to be + past participle + subject  Here, the object of the sentence, the entire cheesecake, moves to the front. The subject of the active sentence, Sophia, moves to the end of the sentence and the emphasis flips from Sophia to the cheesecake.  In many cases, we create the passive voice with to be + the past participle of the verb. If you see this pattern, there's a good chance it's the passive voice.

Understanding differences between active voice and passive voice 

First off, both sentence structures are grammatically correct. The passive voice isn’t “wrong” to use. The active voice makes sense when you want to be direct about WHO is doing WHAT. The passive voice makes sense when… 

Who did the action is not relevant:  

• The law was created in 1963. – we are more focused on the law’s history than who created the law. 

We want to create distance between the subject and action:  

• The grant report was sent in late. – we don’t want to draw attention to WHO made the mistake. 

We want to emphasize the object intentionally:  

• The vaccine was proven to be effective. – we want the vaccine to be the focus, not scientists. 

Why care about the active voice vs. the passive voice 

Some issues with the passive voice happen when the writer uses it on purpose to confuse, be vague, or deflect responsibility. More often, we might also be comfortable writing in an academic style that includes a lot of this structure, and we don’t realize how confusing it can be.  

Here are some examples:  

Passive Version	Challenges	Active Version
500 people were terminated from the hospital last week, outraging the community.	The passive sentence removes responsibility of WHO did the terminating. That makes it harder to know who exactly was responsible, often intentional when talking about unpleasant subjects.	The CEO terminated 500 people from the hospital last week, outraging the community.
Only grant submissions that are fully complete and submitted by the deadline will be reviewed.	The passive sentence requires the reader to make sense of who is responsible for what. Sentences written in the active voice are often shorter and more concise.	We only review complete grant applications that organizations submit by the deadline.

Moral of the story: Language is flexible and contextual. If clarity is the goal, look at how you use the passive voice, and use it wisely.   

Reflecting on your work 

Review a document at your organization. Look for instances of the passive voice. Do they make sense for the context? Are there any sentences that you could change to the active voice to be clearer? 

Want more grammar in your life? Check out the Oxford Guide to Plain English by Martin Cutts, Oxford University Press, 5th edition for a deep dive into this topic and other clear writing strategies.