Using the Active Voice to Strengthen Your Writing

Using the Active Voice to Strengthen Your Writing Using the Active Voice to Strengthen Your Writing Using the Active Voice to Strengthen Your Writing By Ali Hale Writing in the active voice means constructing sentences where the subject â€Å"acts†: I threw the ball. You are making too much noise. Ben will eat popcorn and watch a movie tomorrow evening. In each of these sentences, the subject (I, You and Ben respectively) performs the action of the verb (threw, making, will watch). The sentences are punchy, direct and make it clear who’s doing what. Writing in the passive voice means constructing sentences where the subject is â€Å"passive† – acted upon, rather than agents of action. For many forms of writing, this can create an undesired effect: sentences often become confusing or simply dull. The ball was thrown by me. Too much noise is being made by you. Tomorrow evening, popcorn will be eaten and a movie will be watched by Ben. In each of these sentences, the subject (â€Å"the ball†, â€Å"too much noise†, â€Å"popcorn† and â€Å"a movie†) is being acted upon by the verb. With sentences written in this way, we can even eliminate the agent who is performing this action: The ball was thrown. Too much noise is being made. Tomorrow evening, popcorn will be eaten and a movie will be watched. These are all perfectly correct sentences, but the reader has the sense that something is missing. Who threw the ball? Who or what is making too much noise? And surely someones going to watch that movie and eat that popcorn? Why is the Active Voice So Important? If you’ve ever had a go at creative writing, you’ll probably have come across the advice to always write in the active voice. This is a good rule of thumb for most pieces of fiction: sentences in the active voice have energy and directness, both of which will keep your reader turning the pages! Sentences written in the active voice are also less wordy than those in the passive voice – and cutting unnecessary words always improves a piece of writing, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction. Students writing academic essays can sometimes tie themselves in knots trying to make sentences sound â€Å"formal† – which often (mistakenly) is taken to mean putting a sentence in the passive voice. Here’s an example (thanks to the UVic Writers’ Guide): â€Å"The theme that was most dealt with by the 16th Century poets was . . .† This could be rewritten in the active voice as: â€Å"The 16th Century poets most often dealt with the theme of . . .† This sentence is shorter, to the point, and the reader is less likely to switch off half-way through. It is just as â€Å"formal† and academically correct as the first one, but makes for a better piece of writing by being snappier. How to Get Starting Using the Active Voice Take a piece of writing that you’ve produced, and go through working out if each sentence is in the active or the passive voice. One clue to look out for when searching for sentences in the passive voice is the use of â€Å"was†: â€Å"The theme that was most dealt with by the 16th Century poets†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"His death was regretted.† (Though note not all sentences using â€Å"was† are passive: â€Å"I was riding my bike† is active, â€Å"My bike was being ridden by me† is passive.) Another clue is the use of â€Å"by† when referring to who did something: â€Å"The report was written by me.† â€Å"All of the mistakes were made by him.† Once you’ve identified the passive sentences in your work, try rewriting each in the active voice. Do you think it makes a difference? If you’ve changed a lot of the sentences, read the whole piece through from start to finish – has the overall feel or tone changed? Take a word count of the original and the new version: how many words have you been able to cut? If you get stuck, pop into the Daily Writing Tips forums and post the paragraph or sentences that you’re struggling with! Tips and Tricks for Using the Active Voice Use the active voice when you want your writing to be simple, direct, clear and easy to read. If you’re not very confident about your writing, using the active voice can be an easy way to improve a dull or lifeless piece of prose. However, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you always need to use the active voice. Sometimes, it’s perfectly appropriate to phrase a sentence in the passive voice: just be aware that you’re doing this, and make sure you know why. For example, using the passive voice can be an excellent way to avoid assigning responsibility for a job or problem. Sometimes this can be a useful and tactful way to phrase things in business writing: â€Å"Mistakes were made.† â€Å"The files will be sent as soon as possible.† â€Å"All our records have been lost.† In Elements of Style bartleby.com/141/strunk5.html, Strunk gives the rule â€Å"Use the active voice† but admits that: This rule does not, of course, mean that the writer should entirely discard the passive voice, which is frequently convenient and sometimes necessary. The dramatists of the Restoration are little esteemed to-day. Modern readers have little esteem for the dramatists of the Restoration. The first would be the right form in a paragraph on the dramatists of the Restoration; the second, in a paragraph on the tastes of modern readers. The need of making a particular word the subject of the sentence will often, as in these examples, determine which voice is to be used. At school and university, many people are taught not to use â€Å"I† in scientific or academic writing. (Modern stylistic advice does not generally prohibit using â€Å"I† in this way, but it’s a good idea to check your institution’s guidelines.) Using the passive voice does allow you to avoid the agent performing the action, for example: â€Å"I performed an experiment to test the rate of the reaction.† (active) can be rewritten as: â€Å"An experiment was performed to test the rate of the reaction.† (passive). In general, though, make sure the majority of your sentences are in the active voice: your writing will be livelier and more engaging, encouraging your readers to keep going. Further Reading on the Active Voice Strunk’s Elements of Style Wikipedia article on the Active Voice Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Exquisite Adjectives41 Words That Are Better Than GoodTypes of Plots

Irrealis Were - Definition and Examples

Irrealis 'Were' s Definition In English grammar, irrealis involves the  use of were with a  subject  in the  first-person  singular or third-person singular  to  refer to an unreal or hypothetical condition or eventone thats not true or that hasnt occurred (e.g., If I  were  you, Id go home). In contrast to the more common use of were as a past-tense form (e.g., They were lost), irrealis were is a nontensed mood form, similar to the subjunctive. Irrealis  were  is sometimes called the were-subjunctive or (somewhat misleadingly) the past subjective. As Huddleston and Pullum point out, Irrealis were does not refer to past time, and there is no synchronic reason to analyse it as a past tense form (The Cambridge Grammar Of The English Language, 2002). Defined more broadly, irrealis refers to an event that hasnt occurred (or at least hasnt yet occurred), while realis refers to an event that has occurred. Examples and Observations I was telling Grant that  if I were an  alien and I came down to earth from some far-off planet, there are a few things I would notice about people, and the first thing I would notice is the way they looked, that is, if people looked different on my planet.(Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz. Thomas Nelson, 2003)Roxanne stood talking to him with one long-nailed hand on his shoulder, the other at her hip as  if she were a  model at a trade show trying to sell him the grill.(Kate Milliken, The Whole World.  If Id Known You Were Coming. The University of Iowa Press, 2013)They took to looking at him as  if he were  on the other side of a dirty window.(Kate Milliken, Inheritance.If Id Known You Were Coming. The University of Iowa Press, 2013) If I werent  so broke and unsettled, Id adopt a dog tomorrow.(Andrea Meyer, Room for Love. St. Martins Griffin, 2007) Moodiness: The Subjunctive and the Irrealis Were Traditional grammarians get tripped up by the verb be because they have to squeeze two different forms, be and were (as in If I were free), into a single slot called subjunctive. Sometimes they call be the present subjunctive and were the past subjunctive, but in reality theres no difference in tense between them. Rather, the two belong to different moods: whether he be rich or poor is subjunctive; If I were a rich man is irrealis (not real). . . . In English [the irrealis] exists only in the form were, where it conveys factual remoteness: an irrealis proposition is not just hypothetical (the speaker does not know whether it is true or false) but counterfactual (the speaker believes its false). Tevye the Milkman [in the musical Fiddler on the Roof] was emphatically not a rich man, nor were Tim Hardin, Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash, or Robert Plant (all of whom sang If I Were a Carpenter) in any doubt as to whether they were carpenters. Counterfactual, by the way, need not mean outlandisho ne can say If she were half an inch taller, that dress would be perfectit just means known to be not the case. (Steven Pinker, The Sense of Style. Viking, 2014) An Exceptional Form This use of were is highly exceptional: there is no other verb in the language where the modal remoteness meaning is expressed by a different inflectional form from the past time meaning. The irrealis mood form is unique to be, and limited to the 1st and 3rd person singular. It is an untidy relic of an earlier system, and some speakers usually, if not always, use preterite was instead. (Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum,  A Students Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge University Press, 2005) AlsoSee Past SubjunctiveSubjunctive Mood