Using Active Voice Rather Than Passive Voice

In the active voice, the subject performs the action (e.g., “we write essays”). In the passive voice, the subject is the receiver of the action and is often only implied (e.g., “essays are written by us” or simply “essays are written”). 

• PASSIVE: The estimate of this year’s tax revenues was prepared by the city manager.
• ACTIVE: The city manager prepared the estimate of this year’s tax revenues.

The passive voice is useful when you want to emphasize the receiver of the action, such as in the following cases:

• The response to the action is more interesting than the doing of it: Earth’s axis would be shifted by the impact of the asteroid. (The focus of your essay might be on the fate of Earth rather than on the asteroid.)
• You do not know who or what performed the action: The letter was opened before I received it.
• You prefer not to refer directly to the person who performs the action: An error has been made in computing these data. (Passive voice is sometimes referred to as the “politician’s voice” because it helps the narrator avoid accountability.)

However, in your essays for the GRE’s Analytical Writing Measure, you will usually want to emphasize the person or thing doing the action. Also, repeated use of the passive voice can create anemic, soggy prose that is less lively and engaging than sentences written in the active voice. 

To change from the passive to the active voice, ask who or what is performing the action. 

• ACTIVE: The asteroid’s impact would shift Earth’s axis.
• ACTIVE: Someone opened the letter before I received it.
• ACTIVE: I made an error in computing these data.

Using Active Voice Rather Than Passive Voice Practice Set

In the sentences below, replace instances of passive voice with active voice wherever possible.

1. The faulty wiring in the walls might go unnoticed by safety officials until a fire breaks out.

2. The end of Spain’s conception of itself as a global power was marked by that country’s defeat in the Spanish-American War.