Gooder Writing Tip #7

The Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, definition for passive regarding voice is: "Asserting that the grammatical subject of a verb is subjected to or affected by the action represented by that verb." Meaning, the subject of the sentence is acted on instead of acting. If the subject acts, it is called the active voice.

Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, offers the following explanation for active and passive voice: "Voice shows whether the subject acts (active voice) or is acted on (passive voice)--that is, whether the subject performs or receives the action of the verb."

Subject acted on = passive.
Subject acting = active.

Examples.
A Johnny Depp movie was watched by me = passive.
I watched a Johnny Depp movie = active.

A blog entry was written by me = passive.
I wrote a blog entry = active.

A good trigger for recognizing passive voice is if the sentence contains a form of "to be," such as am, are, be, been, being, had been, has been, have been, is, was, were, will be, will have been. "To be" is usually followed by a past participle.

Past participle.
To rely on Webster's again, a participle is "a word having the characteristics of both verb and adjective; esp: an English verbal form that has the function of an adjective and at the same time shows such verbal features as tense and voice and capacity to take an object." Or, more simply put, it is a verb that ends in "ing" or "ed" (or its equivalent).

The falling leaves are dead.
The dead leaves are falling.
"Falling" is present participle.

He drank the stirred martini.
He stirred the martini then drank it.
"Stirred" is a past participle.

According to Owl at Purdue, "past participles end in -ed, -en, -d, -t, or -n, as in the words asked, eaten, saved, dealt, and seen."

You are more likely to encounter the verb version of the participle when seeking or writing passive voice.

"To be" + past participle = passive voice.

Hint: Make sure "been" is included with "had," has," or "have." For example, "Tara will have watched ten Johnny Depp movies by Monday" is not passive. Tara is the subject, who is doing the acting. Also make sure the participle is a past participle. For example, "Tara has been watching Johnny Depp movies all day" is still active because the participle is present. "Ten Johnny Depp movies will have been watched by Tara" is passive voice.

Another way to recognize passive voice is sentence structure.
Subject, verb, object = active.
Object, verb, subject = passive.

In case anyone tries to tell you otherwise, the passive voice is not grammatically incorrect. It is okay to use the passive voice in moderation (or less). However, passive voice can be vague and often annoying, especially when it is overused. If you want to write a bad essay/paper/thesis/book, begin most of your sentences with "There is" or "There are." If I had been paid by all of the instances of "there is" and "there are" I've had to change instead of by the hour, I could have comfortably retired long ago. Authors use these all the time. Also watch out for "it is." (In the second sentence of this paragraph I said that it is okay to use the passive voice in moderation. A more active sentence would have been "You can use passive voice in moderation.")

My advice? Be more bold, more authoritative. Tell the reader who established those laws, not just that they were established. Tell me who discriminated against the indigenous people, not just that they were discriminated against. Tell me who thinks Johnny Depp is handsome, not just that Johnny Depp is considered handsome. This requires more guts, more research, and will garner you more respect.

This passage from Capital Community College in Hartford, CT, says it well:

We find an overabundance of the passive voice in sentences created by self-protective business interests, magniloquent educators, and bombastic military writers (who must get weary of this accusation), who use the passive voice to avoid responsibility for actions taken. Thus "Cigarette ads were designed to appeal especially to children" places the burden on the ads - as opposed to "We designed the cigarette ads to appeal especially to children," in which "we" accepts responsibility. At a White House press briefing we might hear that "The president was advised that certain members of Congress were being audited" rather than "The Head of the Internal Revenue service advised the president that her agency was auditing certain members of Congress" because the passive construction avoids responsibility for advising and for auditing.

Exceptions.
Some instances when the passive voice is *gasp* preferred: When the object is what's important, and the actor (subject) is not important or is unknown, as in scientific text or police reports.

Examples.
Juvenile dispersal is seen in black-capped chickadees.

That juvenile dispersal occurs among black-capped chickadees is what's important. If I write, "The ornithologist witnessed juvenile dispersal in the chickadee population," I've made the ornithologist the topic, which I did not intend.

The victim was stabbed three times in the leg.

The victim having been stabbed is the important information in this sentence. Especially because the stabber is unknown, it is best to write the sentence passively. This sentence is better than writing, "Somebody stabbed the victim three times," because, as with the ornithologist, I've placed the attention on "somebody," and this is not the sentence's focus. Later, when the stabber is discovered, feel free to give him or her credit for the acccomplishment. "Jerkhead McAhole stabbed the victim three times in the leg."