⚪️ PASSIVE VOICE : When to Use It and When to Avoid It ⚪️
🍂 PART 1️⃣ 🍂
🅰️ : When do I use passive voice?
In some sentences, passive voice can be perfectly acceptable. You might use it in the following cases:
🔴 The actor is unknown:
🍃 The cave paintings of Lascaux were made in the Upper Old Stone Age.
⚠️ We don’t know who made them.
🔴 The actor is irrelevant:
🍃 An experimental solar power plant will be built in the Australian desert.
⚠️ We are not interested in who is building it.
🔴 You want to be vague about who is responsible:
🍃 Mistakes were made.
⚠️ Common in bureaucratic writing!
🔴 You are talking about a general truth:
🍃 Rules are made to be broken.
⚠️ By whomever, whenever.
🔴 You want to emphasize the person or thing acted on. For example, it may be your main topic:
🍃 Insulin was first discovered in 1921 by researchers at the University of Toronto. It is still the only treatment available for diabetes.
🔴 You are writing in a scientific genre that traditionally relies on passive voice.
Passive voice is often preferred in lab reports and scientific research papers, most notably in the Materials and Methods section:
🍃 The sodium hydroxide was dissolved in water. This solution was then titrated with hydrochloric acid.
⚠️ Note: Over the past several years, there has been a movement within many science disciplines away from passive voice. Scientists often now prefer active voice in most parts of their published reports, even occasionally using the subject “we” in the Materials and Methods section. Check with your instructor or TA whether you can use the first person “I” or “we” in your lab reports to help avoid the passive.
#Grammar
#PassiveVoice
@PMPerfect1
🍂 PART 1️⃣ 🍂
🅰️ : When do I use passive voice?
In some sentences, passive voice can be perfectly acceptable. You might use it in the following cases:
🔴 The actor is unknown:
🍃 The cave paintings of Lascaux were made in the Upper Old Stone Age.
⚠️ We don’t know who made them.
🔴 The actor is irrelevant:
🍃 An experimental solar power plant will be built in the Australian desert.
⚠️ We are not interested in who is building it.
🔴 You want to be vague about who is responsible:
🍃 Mistakes were made.
⚠️ Common in bureaucratic writing!
🔴 You are talking about a general truth:
🍃 Rules are made to be broken.
⚠️ By whomever, whenever.
🔴 You want to emphasize the person or thing acted on. For example, it may be your main topic:
🍃 Insulin was first discovered in 1921 by researchers at the University of Toronto. It is still the only treatment available for diabetes.
🔴 You are writing in a scientific genre that traditionally relies on passive voice.
Passive voice is often preferred in lab reports and scientific research papers, most notably in the Materials and Methods section:
🍃 The sodium hydroxide was dissolved in water. This solution was then titrated with hydrochloric acid.
⚠️ Note: Over the past several years, there has been a movement within many science disciplines away from passive voice. Scientists often now prefer active voice in most parts of their published reports, even occasionally using the subject “we” in the Materials and Methods section. Check with your instructor or TA whether you can use the first person “I” or “we” in your lab reports to help avoid the passive.
#Grammar
#PassiveVoice
@PMPerfect1
⚫️ PASSIVE VOICE : When to Use It and When to Avoid It
🍂 PART 2️⃣ 🍂
🅱️ : When should I avoid passive voice?
🔵 Passive sentences can get you into trouble in academic writing because they can be vague about who is responsible for the action:
🍂 Both Othello and Iago desire Desdemona. She is courted.
⚠️ Who courts Desdemona? Othello? Iago? Both of them?
🔵 Academic writing often focuses on differences between the ideas of different researchers, or between your own ideas and those of the researchers you are discussing. Too many passive sentences can create confusion:
🍂 Research has been done to discredit this theory.
⚠️ Who did the research? You? Your professor? Another author?
🔵 Some students use passive sentences to hide holes in their research:
🍂 The telephone was invented in the nineteenth century.
⚠️ I couldn’t find out who invented the telephone!
🔵 Finally, passive sentences often sound wordy and indirect. They can make the reader work unnecessarily hard. And since they are usually longer than active sentences, passive sentences take up precious room in your paper:
🍂 Since the car was being driven by Michael at the time of the accident, the damages should be paid for by him.
#Grammar
#PassiveVoice
@PMPerfect1
🍂 PART 2️⃣ 🍂
🅱️ : When should I avoid passive voice?
🔵 Passive sentences can get you into trouble in academic writing because they can be vague about who is responsible for the action:
🍂 Both Othello and Iago desire Desdemona. She is courted.
⚠️ Who courts Desdemona? Othello? Iago? Both of them?
🔵 Academic writing often focuses on differences between the ideas of different researchers, or between your own ideas and those of the researchers you are discussing. Too many passive sentences can create confusion:
🍂 Research has been done to discredit this theory.
⚠️ Who did the research? You? Your professor? Another author?
🔵 Some students use passive sentences to hide holes in their research:
🍂 The telephone was invented in the nineteenth century.
⚠️ I couldn’t find out who invented the telephone!
🔵 Finally, passive sentences often sound wordy and indirect. They can make the reader work unnecessarily hard. And since they are usually longer than active sentences, passive sentences take up precious room in your paper:
🍂 Since the car was being driven by Michael at the time of the accident, the damages should be paid for by him.
#Grammar
#PassiveVoice
@PMPerfect1