Generic English

BBA/BCom Sem II
INSTRUCTOR: Aswin
aswin.chirackal.11@gmail.com

27/04/2023

Unit 2: Productive Skills: Speaking Skills and Writing Skills

Chapter 8:

Take a sentence like “I want ice cream now.” It’s clear and straightforward—you

know immediately that the subject, I, wants an object, ice cream. Now, recast this

sentence, ipping it so that the object is in the position of the subject: “Ice cream is

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wanted by me now.” It isn’t just longer, but it’s also more detached, roundabout,

and a little awkward, too.

Those two sentences are examples of the active voice and the passive voice. Certain

kinds of writing are best suited for the active voice, while the passive voice is most

appropriate for other kinds of writing. Understanding how, when, and why to use

each is key to being an e ective writer and speaker.

What is active voice, what is passive voice, and what are

In the active voice, the subject is performing an action:

The dog chases the ball.

Notice how the subject, dog, is performing the action, chase, on the target of the

action, ball. This is a simple, direct example of the active voice.

In the passive voice, the action’s target, ball, is positioned rst as the focus of the

sentence. The sentence gets ipped, and the subject is now being acted upon by the

verb. In other words, the subject is passive:

The ball is being chased by the dog.

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Active and passive are the two grammatical voices in English. Neither is inherently

better than the other, but each is suited to certain types of writing. There’s a reason

why news anchors sound detached from the stories they’re reporting: They often

speak using the passive voice. There’s also a reason why the authors of opinion pieces

sound so sure of their positions: They usually write in the active voice.

Although the idea of teachers telling their students to avoid the passive voice is

repeated so frequently that it feels like a trope, the truth is that the passive voice does

have its applications. We’ll get into those later. For now, let’s look at how to recognize

the active voice and the passive voice in your writing and in others’ work.

Active voice

As we’ve learned, in the active voice, the sentence’s subject performs the action. Here

are two examples of sentences in the active voice:

Sheela likes birdwatching.

She loves twilight.

No matter what verb you use, structuring your sentence so the subject performs the

verb is writing in the active voice.

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The active voice has a direct, clear tone. Use it when you want the reader to focus on

the subject of your sentence and the action it is doing rather than on the action’s

target.

Passive voice

In the passive voice, the action’s target is the focus, and the verb acts upon the subject.

Or, to put it in the passive voice, the subject is acted upon by the verb. Every sentence

in the passive voice contains two verbs:

A conjugated form of “to be”

The main verb’s past participle

Take a look at the previous examples, now written in passive voice:

Birdwatching is liked by Sheela.

Twilight is loved by her.

Notice how the targets of the action—also the direct objects of the sentences—are

now the focus. The sentences now contain a conjugated form of “to be” (is) and the

main verb’s past participle (liked and loved). Often, sentences in the passive voice are

longer than sentences in the active voice simply because they have to include

additional words like prepositions. Take a look at this sentence in the passive voice:

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Summer break is [conjugated form of “to be”] loved [past participle of the main verb]

by [preposition] my friends.

However, sentences written in the passive voice don’t necessarily need a preposition.

Take a look at the example sentences below:

The check was paid.

He will be remembered.

The Philippines is known for its marine biodiversity.

The passive voice has a subtler tone than the active voice has. Sometimes your writing

needs this tone, like when you want your reader to focus on the action being

described or the action’s target rather than on who or what is performing the action.

This is why the passive voice is used in lab reports—it conveys scienti c objectivity by

minimizing the focus on the doer of the action.

Active and passive voice usage

Although you may have been told that writing in the passive voice is “bad writing,”

it’s actually more nuanced than that. For most of the writing you do, like emails, blog

posts, and many kinds of essays, the active voice is a more e ective way to

communicate the ideas, themes, and facts you’re expressing.

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In certain kinds of writing, though, the passive voice is necessary. Think about how

news reports about crime and incidents are usually written and delivered:

A car was broken into on Elm Street last night.

Cash was stolen from the register.

In these kinds of reports, the passive voice is used to emphasize the action that

occurred rather than the individual or group who committed the action, often

because the perpetrator isn’t known or hasn’t yet been found guilty of the o ense.

There are other kinds of writing where the action itself, rather than the doer of the

action, is the primary focus. These include scienti c and, in some cases, historical

reports. These use the passive voice to keep the reader’s focus on what has happened

or is happening. Here are a few examples:

The rats were placed into the maze.

The governor was inaugurated at the statehouse.

Notice how in both of these sentences, the doer of the action isn’t mentioned. That’s

because it’s either implied or irrelevant. In the rst example, the scientist performing

the experiment is the one who placed the rats in the maze. In the second, those

conducting the inauguration ceremony aren’t relevant to what’s being expressed in

the sentence.

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How to change passive voice to active voice

After you nish your rst draft, read it. You might even want to read it aloud and

listen to how it sounds. By reading and listening to your own work, you can catch

awkward sentences and unclear phrasing and mark them as points to revise in your

next draft. You’ll also hear where you used the active and passive voices and how they

shift your work’s tone as a whole.

Let’s say you’ve detected a few instances of the passive voice in your argumentative

essay:

More flexible scheduling options are deserved by students. Significant amounts of

tuition are paid to the university every year, and many feel the level of service being

paid for by students is not being received.

See how these sentences feel like they’re dancing around the topic at hand rather than

addressing it head-on? The writer isn’t making a particularly persuasive argument,

but they can make their writing far more impactful by changing it to the active voice.

Sentence-by-sentence, identify who or what is performing the action, and make that

the subject when you rewrite it. In the rst sentence, make students the subject, since

that’s who is performing the action. The main verb in this sentence is deserve, and the

target is more flexible scheduling options, which will become the direct object in your

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new sentence. With these identi ed, restructure the sentence so the subject is now

directly performing the verb. In the active voice, this sentence would read like this:

Students deserve more flexible scheduling options.

See how this version gets right to the point? It makes the writer sound more

con dent too, which is a priority in argumentative writing. Let’s try changing the

second sentence to the active voice, which also allows us to condense:

Students pay a significant amount of tuition to the university every year, and many

feel they aren’t receiving the level of service they’re paying for.

As you can see from the compound sentence above, you can write any kind of

sentence in the active or passive voice as long as the sentence has a transitive verb.

Whether it’s a simple or complex sentence (or even a compound-complex sentence),

you can dramatically alter your tone by simply reworking its structure.

If you aren’t sure whether a sentence is active or passive based on how it sounds, use

the rules we outlined above to identify the two voices in your work. The biggest clue

you have a passive voice sentence on your hands will be a form of “to be” followed by a

past participle (e.g., was requested or will be missed). Not every passive voice sentence

says who is performing the action, but if it does, you’ll see a preposition next to it

(e.g., by zombies or by my brother).

You can use either voice when you’re paraphrasing a longer work. Sometimes, such as

in cases where you’re paraphrasing a scienti c article, you’ll need to use the passive

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voice in your paraphrased version. In others, you might actually make the original

clearer by paraphrasing in the active voice.

Active and passive voice examples

Take a look at these examples of both the active and passive voices in action:

Active: Is Rahul visiting us today?

Passive: Will we be visited by Rahul today?

As you see, questions can be written in either voice. Other kinds of sentences, like

exclamatory and imperative sentences, are often best written in the active voice:

Active: Please remove your shoes before entering my house.

Passive: Shoes should be removed before entering my house.

Active: Lock the door!

Passive: Let the door be locked!

See how with the rst pair, the passive voice makes the request feel more like a

suggestion? In the second pair, the passive voice makes the message sound stilted and

formal rather than an urgent exclamation.

Now take a look at these two examples:

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Active: I poured the solution into the beaker and heated it to 100℉.

Passive: The solution was poured into the beaker and heated to 100℉.

Active and passive voice FAQs

What is active voice, what is passive voice, and what’s the di erence?

In the active voice, the sentence’s subject performs the action on the action’s target. In

the passive voice, the target of the action is the main focus, and the verb acts upon the

subject. There are numerous di erences between the two grammatical voices, but the

most important is that the active voice is clearer and more direct, while the passive

voice is subtler and can feel more detached.

When should you use active vs. passive voice?

Use the active voice in any sentence that focuses on the doer of the action. Unless the

majority of your writing is scienti c or reporting incidents involving unknown

perpetrators, most of the sentences you write should be in the active voice.

The passive voice is meant for sentences where you need to emphasize the target of an

action or the action itself rather than who or what is performing the verb.

How do you change passive voice to active?

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To change the passive voice to the active voice, determine who is actually performing

the action in the sentence, then restructure the sentence so that the performer is the

focus, clearly performing the verb upon the sentence’s direct object.

Passive: Salsa dancing has always been loved by our community.

Active: Our community has always loved salsa dancing.

Exercises

Identify the Voice

1. Shreya Ghoshal sings beautiful songs.

2. The Sun sets in the West.

3. The boy was being beaten by his teacher.

4. Bucky is helped by Steve.

5. The carpenter is building the desk.

6. The woodcutter cut down the tree.

7. The man dropped his axe into the river.

8. The bird was shot by the naughty boy.

9. The bag was found by me.

10. Natasha lost the money.

11. The farmer will plough the eld.

12. The work will be nished by the workers in a day.

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 13. The enemy has entered the war zone.

14. Who sang the song?

15. The children teased the animals.

Answers
1. Active voice 2. Active voice 3. Passive voice 4. Passive Voice 5. Active voice 6.

Active voice 7. Active voice 8. Passive voice 9. Passive voice 10. Active voice 11.

Active voice 12. Passive voice 13. Active voice 14. Active voice 15. Active voice

Active Passive Exercise

Change Active Voice into Passive Voice Exercises with Answers

2. The dog bit the boy.

3. The peon rang the bell.

4. Ram played hockey.

5. Miss Mary teaches us English.

6. Raj caught the ball.

7. Children like sweets.

8. Rita will take a photograph.

9. Who taught you this poem?

10. The police arrested the smuggler.

Answers –
1. The cat was chased by the dog.

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 2. The boy was bitten by the dog.

3. The bell was rung by the peon.

4. Hockey was played by Ram.

5. English is taught to us by Miss Mary.

6. The ball was caught by Raj.

7. Sweets are liked by children.

8. A photograph will be taken by Rita.

9. By whom were you taught this poem?

10. The smuggler was arrested by the police.

Change passive to active voice:

11. A kite was being own by Shiva.

12. The deer was shot by the hunter.

13. The zebra was attacked by the lion.

14. The ball was thrown by Virat.

15. Zara is loved by everyone.

16. This portrait has been drawn by my sister.

17. The wounded woman was being helped by the people.

18. The medicines had been taken by Sam.

19. Extra time is being taken by the player.

20. The sh was eaten by the cat.

Answers:

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 21. Shiva was ying a kite.

22. The hunter shot the deer.

23. The lion attacked the zebra.

24. Virat threw the ball.

25. Everyone loves Zara.

26. My sister has drawn this portrait.

27. The people were helping the wounded woman.

28. Sam had taken the medicines.

29. The player is taking extra time.

30. The cat ate the sh.

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