Passive voice

From Guidevines

The voice or form of a verb whose subject is the receiver (object) of the action of the verb. The active voice refers to the use of a verb whose subject is doing the acting. (From "How to Write Short Stories," by Sorenson, Sharon; Prentice Hall, 1991.) Typically, a sentence in the passive voice employs some form of the verb "to be." For example, the sentence

My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me.

is in the passive voice. Removing "be" and rewriting to make the same statement puts the sentence into active voice, thus:

I will always remember my first visit to Boston.

Note also that the verb "remember" has changed from past tense in the passive example to present tense in the active example. (Examples from "The Elements of Style," 3'rd ed., Strunk and White; MacMillan Publishing, 1979.) Most editors agree that the passive voice weakens a statement, whereas the active voice makes a statement "more direct and vigorous than the passive." (Strunk and White, R.14)

Writers seeking to avoid the passive voice should be careful not to make the mistake of eliminating the actor. For example:

My first visit to Boston will always be remembered.

is still in passive voice, but renders the statement indefinite, by failing to specify by whom the visit "will always be remembered."

[edit] The Killer Be

Writers struggling to learn how to recognize and avoid passive voice may want to focus their attention less on whether or not the proper subject of a verb appears as its object (perhaps the more formal definition), and more on instances of forms of "to be" (that is, on appearances of "was," "is," "been," etc). Past editor of Weird Tales, Darrell Schweitzer, addressed this in his article "Style: Knock Out Weak Verbs!" ("Science Fiction Writer's Market," by Tompkins, David G.; Writer's Digest Books, 1994.) In a section subtitled "The Killer Be," Schweitzer (without ever using the word "passive"), warns that "[t]he most tempting of all English verbs is to be[.]" His analysis explains that "be" is a weak verb because its forms are "static," and "cannot make a story move." (emphasis in original)

Schweitzer's article offers more examples, such as this pair:

His house was filled with black-clad women. (passive)

Black-clad women filled his house. (active)

By searching for appearances of "be" and rewriting to remove them, Schweitzer's approach eliminates the weakening effect of the passive voice, without requiring the writer to recognize it as such. Both Scwhweitzer and Strunk further note with approval that such elimination often results in fewer words in the final version, adding the virtue of brevity.

Commentators do agree that the passive voice need not be abandoned in every case. For example, Strunk offers

The dramatists of the Restoration are little esteemed today. (passive)

Modern readers have little esteem for the dramatists of the Restoration. (active)

to show that the choice depends on the subject being addressed by the greater context. If the subject is the dramatists of the Restoration, the passive form puts them first and makes more sense. If the subject is modern readers, the second example puts them first and, again, might be preferrable. Regardless, Strunk states that, "habitual use of the active voice... makes for forcible writing."