WHAT IS AN ACTIVE VOICE IN WRITING HOW TO

relationship: The subject is supposed to do the remembering.subject: (You) This is an order the subject is the person being ordered.(If you replace the single word “punctuality” with the phrase “Getting to work on time” or “The sum total of the knowledge of tribes of prehistoric America collected by amateur archeologists during the latter half of the nineteenth century,” the grammar of the sentence does not change.) This sentence describes a state of being (neither active nor passive). relationship: The subject does nothing at all the verb “is” functions as an equals sign: “punctuality = important”.action: “being” (“seems” is short for “seems to be”).Tricky Examples ^ Punctuality seems important. The victim was approached from behind and hit over the head with a salami. Linking verbs describe no action - they merely state an existing condition or relationship hence, they are neither passive nor active. When the verb performs the function of an equals sign, the verb is said to be a linking verb. Linking Verbs: Neither Active nor Passive ^

WHAT IS AN ACTIVE VOICE IN WRITING HOW TO

See also: “ Instructions: How to Write Guides for Busy, Grouchy People” 6. If you fail to remove the grill first, you may flood the storage compartment (which is where you are standing right now).

Here are two ways you could fix the ambiguity.ĭrain the tank in one of the following ways: The readers would have to know something about how the tank works in order to make sense of the instructions, but the thing about instructions is that people are reading them because they don’t already know what to do. warn of an undesirable causal result (“if you drain the tank without removing the grill, the result will be that the storage compartment is flooded”)?.offer two different ways to drain the tank (“you may either remove the grill or flood the compartment”)?.To drain the tank, the grill should be removed, or the storage compartment can be flooded.īecause they do not specify the actors, the passive constructions (“should be removed” and “can be flooded”) contribute to the ambiguity of this sentence. Compare how clear and direct these passive sentences become, when they are rephrased as imperative sentences. Ladies and gentlemen, let us consider, for a moment, the effect of the rafting sequences on our understanding of the rest of the novel.īecause passive sentences do not need to identify the performer of an action, they can lead to sloppy or misleading statements (especially in technical writing).“I’ve been framed”), but “voice” has to do with who, while “tense” has to do with when.Ī command (or “imperative”) is a kind of active sentence, in which “you” (the one being addressed) are being ordered to perform the action. (If you refuse to obey, the sentence is still active.) The most common passive constructions also happen to be past tense ( e.g. Many people confuse the passive voice with the past tense. Difference between Passive Voice and Past Tense ^

relationship: The subject (“You”) sits passively while the action (“loving”) is performed by somebody else (“me”).ģ.

relationship: The subject (“I”) is the one performing the action (“loving”).

Can’t tell? If the main verb is a linking verb (“is,” “was,” “are,” “seems (to be),” “becomes” etc.), then the verb functions like an equals sign there is no action involved - it merely describes a state of being.

Does the subject sit there while something else - named or unnamed - performs an action on it? (If so, the sentence is passive.).

Does the subject perform the action of the main verb? (If so, the sentence is active.).Examine the relationship between the subject and main verb.Find the main verb (the action that the sentence identifies).Find the subject (the main character of the sentence).How to Recognize Active and Passive Sentences ^

Links to Active & Passive Verb Resourcesġ.

Linking Verbs: Neither Active nor Passive.

Difference between Passive Voice and Past Tense.

How to Recognize Active and Passive Sentences.

Troy Sterling and the Active and Passive Verbs Contents If a goggles-for-brains Lego character can master the difference between active and passive verbs, you can too.

What is an active voice in writing