Active and Passive Voice

Writing Tip Wednesdays September 14, 2026

When crafting sentences, notice how your subjects and verbs reflect an active or passive voice. In the active voice, the subject does the acting; in the passive voice, the subject is acted upon.

The active voice usually is more direct and vigorous than the passive. Active forms are shorter, easier to read, and almost always clearer than passive voice.

Passive: This article was written by me.

Active: I wrote this article.

Passive: Our recommendations are discussed in Chapter 16.
Active: We discussed our recommendations in Chapter 16.

Passive: Requests for emergency assistance after the hurricane were responded to by several agencies.
Active: Several agencies responded to requests for emergency assistance after the hurricane.

To emphasize recommendations and suggestions, express them in active voice.

Passive: It is recommended that a committee be formed to study the cause of the fire.
Active: We recommend that you form a committee to study the cause of the fire.
Even better: Form a committee to study the cause of the fire.

Sometimes you might need to use passive voice. Most medical and scientific journals prefer active voice. but a few prefer passive voice. Passive voice also might be preferred in the following instances:

When the person acting is unknown
A memo was circulated in the office.

When emphasis needs to be on the object or the action
Smallpox was eradicated in 1980.The saliva collection containers were centrifuged at 10,000 rpm for 10 min to remove the saliva from the collection device.

Practice: Make these sentences active.

Examples of this trend can be observed in the study.
A copy of your resume must be attached to the job application.
The data points are shown in Figure 4.

Resources

Suggested Answers:

The study contains/shows/features examples of this trend.
Attach a copy of your resume to the job application.
Figure 4 shows the data points.