the entity receiving the action is the subject of the sentence.That’s because, when a clause is in passive voice, Note the crisscrossing positions of the sentence elements. In 1776, the Delaware was crossed by Washington. the recipient of the action comes after the verb, as the object ("the Delaware").the verb tells us what the agent is doing ("crossed") and.the agent-whoever or whatever is performing the action-is the subject ("Washington").In 1776, Washington crossed the Delaware. That said, passive voice does have some legitimate purposes, and it’s often confused with other grammatical characteristics, such as the past tense being able to differentiate between passive voice and other constructions and knowing when and why to avoid it will give you much greater control over the clarity and rhetorical effect of your writing.Īctive and passive voice are an issue only in sentences in which one entity-the agent-is doing something-the action-to another entity-the recipient.Īctive voice is the standard subject–verb–object sentence structure: Use of passive voice is among the most frequently invoked sentence-level criticisms, and with good reason: the essential components of a clause-the subject(s) and verb(s)-exist precisely to tell us who is doing what, and the passive voice can undermine that function, obscuring what entity is responsible for what action. Got an active schedule? See the eight-minute version on Quick Clips & Tips, where you can also peruse our infographic!
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