How To Stop Using
The Passive Voice
Don’t Let Your Writing Sound Weak.
If you are anything like me, you get hit with passive voice corrections constantly. It is one of my greatest nemeses when it comes to writing. Grammarly chastises me daily. You would think I would learn my lesson, but I am still banging my head against that grammar wall. I know verbs should be loud and proud, but they often end up wilting like a flower forgotten in the sun.
The disturbing and humiliating part of repeating my mistakes is that my eight-year-old daughter corrects me. The little grammar Nazi! Who’s the professional writer here? It's obviously not me, according to the spawn, as I wouldn't make those mistakes if I followed the rules. The sarcasm is strong in her. But I digress. This article is to help others like me to recognise and obliterate those passive sentences that littler our writing. This is also where I wish I could use the good ole, ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ adage.
Identify the subject:
If you are struggling to pull a passive voice into an active one, identify the subject first.
- What is the subject of your sentence?
- What is the Object?
The subject is who or what you are writing about in the sentence. For instance,
I broke my bicycle.
The bicycle was broken by me.
The subject is I, and the object is the bicycle. By putting the subject first, I have made the sentence active.
Subject first:
The rule is that the subject goes first, then the verb and finally the object.
- God smote me. Vs I was smitten by God.
- I lost my keys. Vs The keys were lost by me.
- My daughter is eight years old. Vs Eight years old is how old my daughter is.
It helps with conciseness and wordiness. However, that's not where I usually screw up with passive voice. My Achilles heel is, has, was, been etc.
- The work was done last week. (passive) We did the work last week. (active)
- I was given money by Mom. (Passive) Mom gave me money. (active)
These are only a few examples of passive writing, and everyone does it. It's not even a bad thing. The issue is it can make your writing look weak. By using an active voice, your writing will sound more assertive and read easier.
When to use the passive voice:
There are times when you will want to use the passive voice. Grammarly has an article on the active and passive voice that is quite helpful.
In the article is an example of ‘The dog chased the squirrel.’ and ‘The squirrel was chased by the dog. If the squirrel is your subject, then you would use the passive voice. Notice how the rule always goes back to what the subject is?
If you are anything like me, your head may be swimming by now and rethinking how well you know grammar rules. Don't sweat it. As a writer, you are continuously improving and picking up new tricks to help your writing style. This will be one of them. Changing from the passive voice to the active voice is one of the best ways to improve your writing.
Keep at it, and you will be writing in the active voice without thinking about it!