Source Why You Should Avoid the Passive Voice in Content Marketing In this particular example, there is more meaningful content in the active voice than in the passive voice, because there are fewer wasted words. Once the lawsuit is filed by you, the verdict will then be decided by a jury. Passive: Your case will be taken by a personal injury lawyer. You can then file a lawsuit, and a jury will decide the verdict. Fewer words allow you to get right to the point and fill up your article with more meaningful content.Īctive: A personal injury lawyer can take your case. While this example is a bit extreme, the example clearly demonstrates that if you fill your paragraphs with passive sentences, you will exhaust your readers. There are other three instruments played by her. Her degree was earned by her at Baker University where she attended. Passive: The harp is beautifully played by John’s sister. She earned her music degree while attending Baker University. Why? Because reading in the active voice requires less effort.Īctive: John’s sister plays the harp beautifully. When content writing companies, web companies, and other companies state that they want easy to read sentences, what most of them are referring to (even if they don’t realize it) is that they want you to write in the active voice. The active voice gives a straightforward delivery with authority because the focus is on what the company can do for the customer. While the passive works, it doesn’t pack the punch. Passive: You can can count on efficient service, affordable, rates, and dependable work delivered by us. The direct, punchy style of the active voice instantly gives top-level professionals a strong writing delivery.Īctive: We deliver efficient service, affordable rates, and dependable work you can count on. Subscribe to my monthly e-newsletter to receive writing and grammar tips.From a content writing perspective there are several practical reasons why the active voice is important: It Creates an Authoritative VoiceĬompany executives, business owners, and industry experts all want to sound authoritative and credible. Improve your grammar with Online Writing Training’s online Grammar, Punctuation and Usage course. The engineer expected the project to cost $70,000.The society held its first meeting in the blue room.The first three are passive and the last one is active. A potential client liked our presentation.The project is expected to cost $70,000. The first meeting of the society was held in the blue room.Passive: The heated water is sent into the pipes.Īctive: The heated water flows into the pipes.Īre the following sentences active or passive? Replacing a passive verb with an active one.Passive: The memo was sent by the manager.Īctive: The manager ruled out the method. You can change the passive to the active by: This won’t always work as the verb may be part of a verb tense ( We are making progress.) Look for extra verbs in the sentence structure – is found, are found, was found, were found, will be found, have been found, should be found.( The action was performed by management.) Look for the word by, which is often an indication of the passive.Find the verb and ask ‘who or what performed the action? – if the ‘who or what that performed the action’ is at the beginning of the sentence, the sentence is active.(not the blue car) How to identify the passive voice When who performed the action of the verb isn’t known or is irrelevant. With the passive voice, you either learn at the end of the clause or sentence who is responsible for the action or you aren’t told at all. In other words, when the subject acts, the verb is active. With the active voice, you learn ‘who’ or ‘what’ is responsible for the action at the beginning of the sentence. The active voice is more direct and vigorous than the passive. When to use the active and passive voice in your writing
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