Active or Passive Voice

Verbs can be active or passive. In the active voice, the subject is the doer. In the passive voice, the subject is the person or thing affected by the action of some other agent.

• The government approved the policy. (Active)
• The policy was approved by the government. (Passive)

There is nothing wrong with a passive construction, but if you can express the same idea using an active verb, you should do so. Passive forms show an unwillingness to shoulder responsibility. In several passive constructions the doer of the action is not mentioned at all.

• My father built this house. (Better than ‘This house was built by my father.’)

The passive voice is common in academic writing; however, it should be avoided in persuasive writing.

Don’t mix active and passive structures in the same sentence. If one clause is in the passive voice, the other, too, should be in the passive voice.

Cases where the passive voice is preferred

There are a few situations where the passive voice is particularly helpful.

The passive voice is used when we want to draw attention to the person or thing that was affected by the action of the subject.

• The unidentified victim was run over by a speeding truck.

Here the focus is on the person who was acted upon.

The passive voice is also preferred in cases where the doer is not important.

• The pyramids were built around 400 AD.

Here the focus is on the pyramids and not on the person(s) who built them and hence we prefer the passive voice.

Passive Verb Formation

The passive forms are created by combining a form of be with the past participle form of the main verb.

Make your writing more formal

While communicating with business people, the language you use must be consistently appropriate in style and tone.

The following are the basic features of formal writing.

Write all verbs in full. Do not use contracted forms like don’t or can’t.

Do not use abbreviations such as info (for information) and asap (for as soon as possible).

Limit the use of passive voice. However, there are some situations where passive verb forms are preferred to active forms. For example, active verb forms used with the first person singular are not considered appropriate in formal or academic writing. Write ‘A copy of the document will be mailed to you as soon as possible’ instead of ‘I will mail you a copy of the document asap’.

Watch your vocabulary. Certain words are considered informal. Examples are: fix, begin, start, OK, thanks etc. Avoid them in formal writing. Instead use words like repair (for fix), commence (for start / begin), in order / all right (for OK) and thank you (for thanks).

Avoid informal intensifiers like really and so. Instead use more sophisticated ones such as extremely, highly, entirely etc.

Limit the use of phrasal verbs. As far as possible avoid using them, but if that is not possible limit their use. It is usually possible to express the same idea using standard verb forms.

Certain discourse markers are considered informal. Avoid using them. For example, write incidentally instead of by the way.

Do not leave out words. Ellipsis is not acceptable in formal writing. Write ‘I hope to see you soon’ instead of ‘Hope to see you soon.’