In writing, it's almost always best to use the active voice. This is because readers instinctively expect a subject to come before a verb.
USING AN ACTIVE VOICE
n the active voice, a basic sentence includes three main parts in a specific order. For example:
"The buyer signed the contract."
First a subject, which identifies who or what performs an action – in this case, "the buyer".
In the sentence, "The buyer signed the contract," the subject is "the buyer."
Then a verb that identifies the action – "signed".
In the sentence, "The buyer signed the contract," the verb is "signed."
Finally an object, which is the entity acted upon – "the contract".
In the sentence, "The buyer signed the contract," the object is "the contract."
In the passive voice, this order is reversed. So the sentence "The buyer signed the contract" becomes "The contract has been signed." The object comes first. It's followed by the action and then by the subject. In this case, the subject has been omitted, which is acceptable, if it is known who the signer is.
In writing, it's almost always best to use the active voice. This is because readers instinctively expect a subject to come before a verb.
Reversing this relationship by using the passive voice can slow down a reader's understanding. For example, in the sentence:
"Claims are submitted to Jenna by the Accounting Department."
It's confusing who the subject is. The revised sentence:
"The Accounting Department submits claims to Jenna"
Clearly identifies the Accounting Department as the subject.
Passive voice also results in writing that's vague and unclear. If the writer doesn't identify the person who acts, the reader may not get complete information. In some cases, it can seem that the writer is being evasive, as in the case of "A mistake has been made."
An example of a sentence in the passive voice is:
"A mistake has been made."
In the active voice, this could become:
"I made a mistake."
Overall, the active voice is more concise, direct, and forceful. This sentence is to the point:
"The client accepted our proposal."
The same sentence in the passive voice may sound more impressive, but it isn't concise writing:
"Our proposal has been accepted by the client"
It confuses the subject and it uses more words to convey the same message.
QUESTION
Which voices are the following sentences written in?
Learning to distinguish between active and passive voice is the first step toward using these verb forms effectively.
The sentences beginning with "The latest version of our financial software" and "Phil, our computer expert" are both in the passive voice. Each begins by identifying an object – the person or thing acted upon.
Both sentences that begin with "You" are in the active voice because they begin by identifying the subject – the person responsible for the action.
Although it's best to write in the active voice, there are times when the passive voice is appropriate.
For example, it might be important to be subtle about who was responsible for an action, as in "The security of our server was breached last night." This information might also be beside the point – or you may not know it.
Examples of potentially appropriate passive sentences are:
"An error was made in the accounts."
"The project was completed on Monday."
and
"The security of our server was breached last night."
Sometimes using the odd passive sentence can help vary your writing style – but using this voice shouldn't become the norm.
To help identify sentences written in the passive voice, you can ask yourself three questions:
Consider this example of a passive sentence:
"The final date for the conference has been confirmed by John."
The person who acts in this sentence is John. So he's the subject. The main action, or verb, is "confirmed." What was confirmed? The conference date – so this is the object. To convert the sentence into an active one, you move the actor to the beginning, identify the action, and then name the object:
"John confirmed the final date for the conference."
QUESTION
Which sentences use the active voice effectively to provide instructions to users about how to update their security settings?
The first sentence uses the active voice to clearly identify the people – or the actors in the sentence – who need to carry out the instructions.
The second sentence uses the passive voice. It makes it unclear who should perform the task of installing updated security patches.
The use of the passive voice in the third sentence makes in unclear. It doesn't specify whose questions will be answered or who will address those questions.
The fourth sentence uses the active voice to identify who will answer questions. This is direct and clear.
I have been teaching and training agents, team leaders, supervisors, managers and admins of call centers and other businesses in BPO related fields. This series, comes as a result of that experience. I have more than 4,000 modules that I plan on sharing here. This is # 003-11
