This handout is also available for download in PDF format. We refer to a sentence as being in the "active voice" when the subject is performing the action of the sentence (the verb). A sentence is in ...

Writing in the active voice makes the meaning clear while keeping sentences from becoming complicated and wordy. Sentences using passive voice are not necessarily wrong, just less effective than ...

Passive voice constructions can be especially insidious, for failure to understand them correctly can actually lead to a misinterpretation of vital information. This module will first present a brief ...

Both describe the same facts. However, in each pair one sentence uses the active voice and one uses the passive voice. Which sentence would you use? That would depend on what tone you wanted to ...

Voice is a grammatical category, an operator, that has no directly link to conceptual structure. Voice is a complex issue, but it appears to mark a prominent object that the speaker chooses to make ...

Both describe the same facts. However, in each pair one sentence uses the active voice and one uses the passive voice. Which sentence would you use? That would depend on what tone you wanted to ...

The voice of the verb is distinct from its tense. Don't confuse the passive voice with the past tense. (Sentence 2 happens to be in the past tense, but 3 is not; both 2 and 3 are in the passive voice.

or "An external magnetic field of 4 T was applied as the pressure was increased to 300 kPa." Which is the better way to compose your research; the direct, bold language of active voice, or the ...

In the Strunk example above, the leaves aren’t exactly juggling chainsaws, but it’s a mistake to equate physical passivity ...