Passive voice refers to a sentence
whose subject is being acted upon.
Passive: The
chicken was chased by Mike.
Passive: Frank’s
head is surrounded by bristly hair.
In the active voice, the subject acts.
Active: Mike
chased the chicken.
Active: Bristly
hair surrounds Frank’s head.
Use the active voice instead of the passive voice whenever
possible. The passive voice will make your writing dull and listless;
the active voice, which allows you to use strong, interesting verbs,
will make your writing lively.
Passive voice is appropriate when the agent performing
the action is unknown or irrelevant.
• The chicken had already been plucked
and cleaned by the time Mike returned to the farm on Tuesday.
