63 Active Voice

What is Active vs Passive Voice?

A sentence written in active voice has a subject that performs the action of the verb. For example: The dog bit the mailman. The dog performs the action of biting.

A sentence in passive voice has almost a backwards arrangement. The subject and direct object of the example sentence are flipped: The mailman was bitten by the dog. Here, the subject mailman is not performing the action of the verb. He is not doing the biting.

Active voice is usually preferred to passive voice as active voice conveys meaning more clearly and more concisely. In the examples, “the dog / bit / the mailman” takes fewer words than “the mailman / was bitten / by / the dog.” Passive voice sentences usually contain “be” verbs and a prepositional phrase.  Moreover, the brain has to slow down just a little bit to rearrange word order and decipher the meaning. However, passive voice can be preferred in specific situations, such as in scientific reports, an instance when the topic is most important and needs to fall in the subject position in a sentence: i.e., The gamma rays were dialed up to maximum force.