How do you avoid passive voice in technical writing?

by Jack Hennary My Assignment Help

Are you ready? Let's begin.

Ø Definition of Passive Voice.

In passive voice, subject and object switch their position where instead of the subject acting on the object, the object becomes the subject.

Ø Why should you avoid using passive voice?

· The passive voice creates a distance between the subjects from the sentence's action, which leads to less clarity.

· The auxiliary verbs used in the passive voice add unnecessary words.

· It makes it unclear who or what is doing the action.

So, it is better to avoid using it to craft explicit and engaging content. How to reduce the number of passive voices in your writing?

1. Identify different parts of a sentence

To compose an articulate sentence, first, you need to identify different parts and their usage. Start by locating the verb in the sentence, as it controls the action. Then, determine whether it is an active verb like 'wrote', 'kicked' or the passive verb phrases like 'to be' and its conjugations are added.

For example, in the sentence "Charlie wrote the letter", the verb is 'wrote'. The verb is in the past tense. It is the action. 'The letter' is passive because it is not doing anything. It's just being written.

2. Identify the subject

After locating the verb and the action of the sentence, identify the subject. In the active voice, it is the subject who/what does the action. So, from the last example, "Charlie wrote the letter", Charlie is doing the action. But always, a person doesn't need to be the subject. Even an inanimate thing can also be a subject. For example, "The bus stopped the traffic". Here, the action is 'stopping'. Who or what did it? The bus. Hence, the bus is the subject of the sentence.

3. Identify the object

The object is somewhat on which the action is being acted upon. For example, in "Charlie wrote the letter", 'letter' is the direct object.

4. Write in active voice

To do that:

Ensure that the subject is doing the verb.
Spot the passive voice and convert it into an active voice.
Learn when the right time to use the passive voice is. You can consider it by determining the importance of the direct object.

Passive voice is not a grammatical error by grammar checker

But use it when you have a solid logical reason to use it.

So, follow the tips to reduce the number of passive voices and write compact sentences.