For many writers, the dogma is to always use the active voice in conveying their message to the audience. Indeed, there is something spell-binding about using the active voice that makes readers hooked to a particular story. That’s why it’s important to know how to correct passive voice in a sentence!
However, for the most experienced writers in the field, they know how to seamlessly switch between the active and passive voice to get the best from both worlds.
Is It Okay for a Writer to Use Passive in a Sentence?
Ideally, a great writer should know when the passive voice should come in handy, and when the active voice should reign supreme. It’s about striking a balance between both worlds.
In fact, there are situations in writing where the passive voice should majorly be used. This can include situations whereby an individual of the higher position will be communicating his or her expectations to subordinates.
Passive voice in academic writing is also preferred. Especially when dealing with scientific papers.
Additionally, the passive voice is widely used by the media to relay breaking news; particularly on a disaster that occurred a few moments ago. For example, have you ever noticed this particular pattern with the news?
- Three people died today after a bus collided with a mini-van heading to New port earlier this morning.
Indeed, in this sentence, the passive voice reigns supreme yet again and is easily observable in the first and second part of the sentence.
The passive voice is also widely used in academic writing to showcase formality when writing content.
The Good and the Bad of using The passive voice in an essay
If you plan to use the passive voice, you should be aware of the pros and cons of going down this rabbit hole.
For starters, one of the major issues of using the passive voice is that it tends to affect your flow in writing.
As you are by now aware, flow is the ability of your content to easily transition between a paragraph, as well as a frame of thought.
The problem with the passive voice is that it tends to stifle the writer’s creativity as he or she sticks to a more formal style of writing. That’s why a passive sentence checker can make all the difference in your content.
Nevertheless, there are some benefits of using the passive voice in writing.
One of them being that it is important for formal functions to relay a message of instruction to the audience.
For example:
- We would like to inform the faculty that bagels in the kitchen are reserved for guests only.
However,
Why Should You Change the Passive Voice to Active Voice?
When it comes to entertaining your audience with your content, it is vital that you stick to the active voice. Which begs the question; how do you fix a passive sentence?
The major difference between the passive in a sentence and the active voice depends on the sentence structure. That is; is the action being performed by the subject or is the action taking the primary role in the sentence.
From what can you tell which sentence is in the passive voice?
- John ate the bagels. (Active voice)
- The bagels were eaten by John. (Passive voice)
If you’re a witty writer or blogger, then using the active voice can make your audience eat from the palm of your hands. That’s because active voice always tends to maintain a crucial flow while still holding the relevance of the message.
How Do You Change Passive to Active Voice in Your Content?
Here are some crucial pointers that you can use to enable you to know how to fix passive voice in an essay.
- Determine your subject and your verb: The first thing you need to do is know exactly where your subject and your verb are in the sentence. For example, in a sentence such as “John ate the bagels at the reception”, it is crystal clear that the subject is John and the verb is ‘ate.’
- Convert the verb as the primary concentrator of the sentence: What this means is that the verb now performs the action on the subject of the sentence. Looking at the aforementioned example, here’s how we can switch it to active voice: “The bagels were eaten by John at the reception”.
How to Fix Passive Voice in an Essay?
In the event that you have instances of passive voice in your content, you rectify them using a free passive voice checker.
- Start by first singling out instances of passive voice in your content by loading it into the interaction box of the free online essay editor.
- After you’ve done this, the passive checker will analyze your English sentences for any instances of passive voice. It will do this by using certain algorithms specially coded to highlight passive voice in your sentence.
- Moreover, the active and passive voice detector is also designed to check the content for any instances of syntax or grammatical errors; which it then proceeds to rectify.
- And voila! You now have your content 100% in the active voice!
That being said, feel free to access our passive sentence checker today to analyze your content and have it written in the active voice!
