The passive voice is one of two grammatical voices (active voice being the other) used in writing. It injects a piece with a certain degree of formality and sophistication that can leave readers feeling lectured.
That’s not to say that that’s a bad thing. After all, academic and scientific articles certainly find the passive voice useful for persuading the target audience. In these pieces of writing, it’s important to give one’s work an air of authority, of which the passive form is known to be great at.
However, in business articles, blogs, works of non-fiction, and others, you want to aim for a more conversational tone. This calls on you to use the active voice and shift any sentence permeated inappropriately with the passive tone to the active form. As such, you might want to employ the use of passive voice checkers when revising these compositions.
What Is the Passive Voice?
So, what is the passive voice, and when do we use it? Also, when should we avoid it? To move forward in your journey as a writer, you must understand the role of passive voice in writing.
A sentence in the passive voice puts the subject secondary to the verb, meaning the subject is merely a recipient of the verb’s action. So, the focus is always on what has been done followed by who it has been done by. This makes the sentence sound too formal and (dare we say) detached. It can also easily cause the message to be convoluted, which might cause readers to lose interest.
That said, the passive voice exists for a reason. It is meant to show readers that the narrator or writer is well-versed in a particular subject and should be heeded. The passive grammatical voice also imbues one’s work with a certain level of formality, giving it a fancier, albeit disengaged, tone.
When To Use the Passive Voice
We already know what works of writing are enhanced by the passive voice, but how do we know when to use it in our own writing?
1. Use the passive voice deliberately.
Simply put, you can use the passive voice in a sentence if it is what your brand of storytelling calls for. Even if it’s considered an odd choice by many and might not necessarily lead to a better read, you want to follow the whims of your creative mind. After all, writing is about failing, too. And failing can be crucial to a writer’s growth.
2. Focus on the action rather than the subject.
Sometimes, it’s the action that needs emphasizing and not its doer. If you want to shine more of a light on what happened rather than what caused it to happen, using the passive voice can help immensely.
3. Maintain alignment between the subject and the focus throughout the piece.
It’s important to maintain the tone of voice used in the first sentence throughout the entire piece. This is all about consistency, which also contributes significantly to a content’s readability. So, when you begin with a passive tone, it follows that you should also end with a passive tone.
4. Keep the subject hidden.
Suppose you need to keep details about an individual (the actor) confidential; can you do that with the active voice? Not likely. So, your report should always be presented in the passive form, as it discloses what happened but not who or what caused it.
5. Ignore the actor.
When the action is what you want people to focus on, the subject or actor can fade into the background. The passive voice allows you to accomplish this with ease. This is what’s typically done when reporting about statistics and historical events.
6. Create authority.
We’ve already established how the passive voice creates a detached tone. In doing so, it injects the writing with an element of authority. It tells readers you want something followed, preferably with no questions asked.
When to NOT Use the Passive Voice
Basically, in scenarios other than the ones mentioned earlier, you want to stick to the active voice. Most forms of business writing these days require authors to take a friendly tone because that’s what gets readers to interact. The passive voice is not the kind of “friendly” that encourages engagement, as it doesn’t tell the audience where the author stands.
Moreover, it’s so easy to omit facts without noticing when writing in a passive voice. That’s because you can shift to this voice easily without getting the grammar wrong.
Embrace the Passive Voice
Should you steer clear of the passive voice? Not at all, especially if your brand of writing calls for it. In fact, the passive form holds an important role in scientific and academic writing, as well as other works that require a formal, detached tone.
Still, outside of these writing forms, you want to stick to the active voice, which not only makes your piece clear and concise but also allows it to pack more punch.
