Active Voice vs. Passive Voice Which is Best

Active Voice vs. Passive Voice Which is Best Active Voice vs. Passive Voice: Which is Best? You may have heard the terms â€Å"active voice† and â€Å"passive voice† before, but many people struggle with what they mean. More importantly, many are also unsure about when to use these grammatical voices in academic writing. However, since sorting out tricky grammar problems is what we do best, we’ve decided to set things straight with this (fairly) easy-to-follow explanation. Transitive Verbs We’ll start out with explaining what a transitive verb is, as these are the only verbs that can be used with the passive voice. Put simply, a transitive verb is one that takes an object. A sentence with a transitive verb typically takes the form of subject + verb + object: Subject Verb Object Keith†¦ †¦plays†¦ †¦the guitar. Here, â€Å"Keith† is the subject (i.e., the person acting), â€Å"plays† is the verb (i.e., the action being carried out) and â€Å"guitar† is the object (i.e., the thing Keith is playing). Some say he has been playing since the beginning of time. Active and Passive Sentences â€Å"Keith plays the guitar† is an active sentence, since it foregrounds the person performing the action. Most of the sentences we use in daily life are similarly constructed. The active voice is therefore useful when you want to emphasize the person (or thing) carrying out the action in a sentence. To make a passive sentence, we make the object the subject of the sentence instead, with the person performing the action identified by a prepositional phrase at the end: Subject Verb Prepositional Phrase The guitar†¦ †¦was played†¦ †¦by Keith. The passive voice even allows us to omit the subject of a sentence altogether, if required: Object Verb The guitar†¦ †¦was played. But who played this guitar? A passive sentence leaves the question unanswered. This is useful if you’re trying to create suspense by withholding information or distance yourself from your actions (such as when politicians say â€Å"Mistakes were made.†) Relations with that woman were not had. Active Voice or Passive Voice? So, which is best? The short answer is neither: Both active and passive voice sentences have a role to play in formal writing. The key is knowing when to use them. Some people discourage use of the active voice in academic writing since it sometimes involves using the first person (e.g., â€Å"I† or â€Å"we†), which can draw focus away from the subject matter. Using the passive voice can therefore give your work a more objective tone. If you were describing an experiment, for instance, you could use the active voice to say: Active Voice: I compared the results with those from a control group. However, you could also remove the â€Å"I† from this sentence by using the passive voice: Passive Voice: The results were compared to those from the control group. The second option here is usually better in an academic context. On other occasions, the active voice is better, since it’s typically clearer and more concise. It’s also worth noting that the passive voice isn’t the only way to eliminate the first person from your work. The following active, first-person sentence, for example: Active Voice: I conclude that the findings contradict the initial hypothesis. Could be changed to the passive voice to remove reference to the subject: Passive Voice: The initial hypothesis is contradicted by the findings. But you could achieve the same results by simply using â€Å"the findings† as the subject of an active sentence: Active Voice: The findings contradict the initial hypotheses. This preserves the objectivity of a passive sentence, but avoids the complicated sentence constructions that may result from using the passive voice too often.