Most English professors frown on using the passive voice in formal essays. However, there are times when it is actually preferable to the active voice. I’ll discuss when and why in a minute, but first, in order to appropriately use the passive voice, you have to know what it is! So we’ll start with a review…
Which of these sentences is in passive voice?
- This school was built by Harry Smith.
- Harry Smith built this school.
Exactly! Answer: 1
To use the passive voice, we take the object of the sentence and turn it into the subject. Then we use a form of “be” + the past participle. (In this case, “was” + “built.”) Since the object becomes the subject, in order to clarify who did the action, you can add “by someone,” though sometimes the agent is simply left off.
When should I use it?
#1. It’s a good idea to use passive voice when you don’t know who is doing the action.
Let’s start out by changing this sentence to passive:
Active: Someone vandalized the school last night.
Passive: The school was vandalized last night.
#2. We also use the passive voice to remove blame and make things sound nicer.
For example, let’s say that the water company needs to shut off your water to make some repairs to the pipes. If they use active voice to send out the notice, it might look something like this:
Active: We will shut off your water tomorrow at 10:00 a.m for repairs.
It almost sounds like a threat, right? When something unpleasant needs to be done, sometimes it’s better not to know who is doing the unpleasant action. So how can you make this sentence sound a little nicer? Switch it to passive!
Passive: Tomorrow at 10:00 the water will be shut off for repairs.
#3. If you want to put special emphasis on the object, you can use the passive voice.
For example, let’s say that I want to talk to you about the book Pride and Prejudice, but I want to focus on the book itself, not the author.
Passive: Pride and Prejudice was written by Jane Austen. <–Focus on the book
Active: Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice. <–Focus on the author.
Remember, unless we have a specific reason to use the passive, it’s usually better to use the active voice to strengthen your writing.
Let’s review the reasons that we use passive voice:
#1. We don’t know who did the action.
Example: The bank was robbed last night.
#2. We remove the blame/make a situation sound more pleasant.
Example: We regret that a mistake was made with your account.
#3. We want to place special emphasis on the object of a sentence.
Example: This piano was given to me by my aunt.
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