Writing Labs

Writing in the Active Voice

The debate over the use of active or passive voice (the relationship of the subject to the action of the verb) has been raging for years. While there is room for both active and passive voice in today's writing, I recommend using active voice in technical writing.

If you've never had to worry about active and passive voice, think of it this way: if you write a sentence and the verb is in the active voice, then your subject acts; if the sentence is written in the passive voice, your subject is acted upon. 

Consider these two sentences:

• Trevor bought the soda. (active)

• The soda was bought by Trevor. (passive)

In the first sentence, the reader quickly learns that Trevor (the subject) bought a soda (the object). In the second sentence, the first thing you learn is that there is a soda. What about it? Nothing special, except someone bought it. And oh yeah, it was Trevor. As far as I'm concerned, passive writing takes too many words to get to the point. Remember that your goal as a technical writer is to get to the point quickly and efficiently.

Here's another example: 

• Tim killed the story. (active)

• The story was killed by Tim. (passive)

In the first sentence the subject, Tim, is emphasized. In the second sentence the focus is on the object, the story. The active sentence is far more powerful.

If you write using the passive voice, your sentences can become difficult to understand.

Here's an example: 

• The DUPLICATE command should be selected. (passive)

• Select the DUPLICATE command. (active)

In the first example, learners may get confused. Should the DUPLICATE command already be selected, or are they supposed to select it. In the second example, there is no confusion. You want them to select the DUPLICATE command. Period.

Challenge Exercise

Print this page. Circle the active sentence from the following examples.

1. The steak was eaten by Terri.
   
   Terri ate the steak.
   
   
   
   
2. The dog chased the mail carrier.
   
   The mail carrier was chased by the dog.
   
   
   
   
3. We ate every bite of the pizza.
   
   Every bite of the pizza was eaten by us.
   
   
   
   
4. The article was written by Kevin.
   
   Kevin wrote the article.
   
   
   

Answers