ACTIVE VERSUS PASSIVE VOICE

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by Emily Corral2 views·Updated Feb 22, 2021
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  1. Hi, everyone.
  2. My name is Emily.
  3. Today we're going to be going over active versus passive
  4. voice. Not only does writing active lease on much stronger
  5. and improve your writing, it also provides the reader with
  6. much more clarity.
  7. Okay, so first active versus passive voice.
  8. So active voice has a subject verb relationship in which
  9. the subject is the agent.
  10. Performing the action and passive voice would be the receiver
  11. of the action.
  12. Or the direct object is the focus of the sentence
  13. rather than the person or thing doing the action, which
  14. is the subject.
  15. So passive and active voice are basically the reversal of
  16. each other.
  17. So in this example, Rebecca ate a pizza.
  18. The reversal of this would be the pizza was eaten
  19. by Rebecca.
  20. So essentially there are the same sentence.
  21. But in passive voice, which the passive voice sentence is
  22. the pizza was eaten by Rebecca.
  23. It describes the sentence from a different perspective.
  24. So it's basically just placing the focus on the unimportant
  25. part of the sentence, which would be the pizza when
  26. the focus should really be on Rebecca.
  27. Okay, so now how to change Passive voice sentence is
  28. toe active ones So, for example, in the sentence, help
  29. is being sent to the patient by the staff to
  30. make the active You would change it then Thio, the
  31. staff is sending help to the patient.
  32. So what we did Waas identity was changed.
  33. Help to now the direct object and then staff is
  34. now the subject.
  35. So it's really simple.
  36. But basically when you break it down what we did
  37. was identify the parts of the subject and then at
  38. the V verb which is being and then shift the
  39. direct object to the subject position.
  40. Um and then include the by phrase of necessary, which
  41. we did.
  42. So um, in the phrase by the staff.
  43. So here is an example of incorrect passive to active
  44. transformation. This is a common mistake that a lot of
  45. writers make.
  46. So here it says, the soup is being tasted by
  47. John and then they transitioned it.
  48. Thio the soup is tasting, John.
  49. So obviously this is incorrect.
  50. Um, it's just a bad example of passive to active
  51. transformation. So you always want to avoid this.
  52. So where they went wrong would be, um the soup
  53. is the direct object, but remains as the subject, which
  54. is taking John Spot as the direct sorry, taking John
  55. spot as the object.
  56. Sorry, uh, taking John spot as the subject.
  57. So the soup and John have to be reversed in
  58. this sentence for it to be correct and an active
  59. sentence. So with the soup as a subject and John
  60. as the direct object.
  61. Okay, so, um, this is a little bit more about
  62. active voice.
  63. So to remember, to write an active voice always remember
  64. that the stuff that it's a subject verb relationship in
  65. which the subject is the agent performing the action.
  66. So you always want to place the focus and attention
  67. on the subject or person that's performing the action, which
  68. is also known as the Asian.
  69. So an active voice.
  70. The voice of the sentence is the relationship between the
  71. subject and the verb.
  72. So to write with an active voice that is helpful
  73. to think about the relationship between the person and the
  74. action to write actively, remember to make the person or
  75. the subject doing the action the focus of the sentence.
  76. So there's some example sentences where the subjects are taking
  77. action and the focus is on what the subject is
  78. doing or the subject verb.
  79. So the family donated the money.
  80. She walked quickly.
  81. They danced.
  82. Ridley Thes subjects are known as agents.
  83. So a little bit more about this subject in these
  84. sentences. Clearly, the family donated the money.
  85. The family is the subject or the agent, the person
  86. doing the action.
  87. And she walked quickly.
  88. She is the subject.
  89. They danced weirdly, they is a subject.
  90. So the focus here is on the subject of the
  91. sentence or the agent that's performing the actions.
  92. And then for the verb, Um, they the family donated
  93. the money.
  94. She walked quickly.
  95. They danced weirdly.
  96. So here the verbs would be donated, walked and danced.
  97. So just remember, what is the action that the subject
  98. is doing?
  99. All right.
  100. So just to conclude, I hope that you can use
  101. these tools to become a more active writer and to
  102. avoid using passive voice by remembering to place the focus
  103. on the important part of the sentence and highlight the
  104. agent that is performing the verb.
  105. And lastly, here is I were excited.
  106. Thank you, everyone.