Passive Voice versus Passive Verbs
You may have heard of the great advice to get rid of the extra “to be” verbs as you self-edit. I concur with that task. Not only is it boring for the reader, but using passive verbs makes your writing weak. That’s why they’re termed…well…passive verbs.
However, contrary to what some people believe, every use of “was”—or another form of the verb “to be”—is not inherently using the passive voice. “Was” is the legitimate past tense of “to be” and in many cases is 100% correct. Unfortunately, some people who call themselves editors don’t recognize the difference and ruthlessly edit out every instance of “was” in a manuscript.
These are legitimate, correct uses of the past tense of “to be” (although in the last one, you could get rid of the “to be” helper verb and just write “waited”):
The sky was blue.
The man was tall.
Emily was waiting on the corner.
The passive voice—which is very different from a passive verb—happens when the action is happening to something rather than the main noun actively acting.
This is passive voice: “It was determined by the gang that the gold was real.”
The subject is weak and indeterminate. Two actors, the gang and the gold, are vying for the lead role here, but “the gang” is the true bearer of the news about the gold. Placing the active subject (the gang) at the beginning of the sentence makes the sentence robust and puts the emphasis on a stronger, more descriptive verb, “to determine,” instead of the weak “to be”: “The gang determined that the gold was real.”
There are legitimate uses for passive voice. Governments and other large entities (along with politicians and journalists) sometimes use it to deflect blame (but I’m not sure those are “legitimate”). 🙂 And sometimes, the passive voice is a political instrument:
“I acknowledge that mistakes were made.” –Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales. Active voice would be: “I acknowledge that I made mistakes.”
In a book I’ve been editing for the past year (developmental editing), the author and I decided that one weaselly politician’s speeches would be filled with passive voice. His personal, non-acting voice is not passive. It’s a show designed to soothe the masses. 🙂
Passive voice was also frequently used in research reports, but the scientific community has been moving away from that: “The subject was then moved to the OR, where their spleen was removed” versus “We moved the subject to the OR, where we removed their spleen.”
Do you have the habit of writing passively without even knowing it?
We’re Dun for today, so keep on Writin’!
Next week we’ll discuss ‘Using the Wrong Song Lyrics’
Susan
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Reblogged this on Musings on Life & Experience and commented:
Useful information from Susan and Chris.
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Thanks for sharing, Suzanne 😃
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Thanks for sharing it with your readers, Suzanne! ❤
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Thanks again Susan and Chris! More great tips we should all take to heart.
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Thanks for being a loyal reader, Rebecca! ❤
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Reblogged this on Writing for the Whole Darn Universe.
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Thanks for sharing, Malia Ann 😃
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You’re welcome, Chris! 🙂 ❤
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Oh boy! Now the Whole Darn Universe will have been informed properly about passive voice! ❤
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The Whole Darn Universe loves being informed and much prefers splendid voices. 🙂
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Another great article Susan, filled with practical advice and examples. Thanks
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Thanks a lot, Paul! 🙂
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Excellent post. When I started writing I thought “was” was a very useful verb and didn’t know the difference between active and passive sentences. Oh my, that resulted in a ton of rewriting! 😀 I learned my lesson! Now, I write actively, for the most part, on a first draft. Though I still go through and edit out most of my passive sentences and “to be” variations that sneak in there.
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Thanks! Yes, even if you aren’t writing passively, forms of “to be” are certainly not very descriptive… It’s best to change them if you can! (Along with forms of “to have.”) 🙂
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Thank you for this informative post, Susan.
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Thanks a lot, Jan! 😀
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Oh yes, I confess I catch myself writing in passive voice way too much. Thank goodness Word highlights my error ways. 😳
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Yes, that’s one thing that Word is very good at highlighting. Which was a huge pain in the butt when I was trying to edit the weaselly politician’s speech! 😀
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Reblogged this on Barbarian Writer and commented:
Are you using Passive voice in your writing? I know I struggle with it. Here, The Stroy Reading Ape offers some advice.
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Thanks for sharing, John 😃
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More than happy to! I find this type of help.. well, helpful! 😀 😀
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Thanks for reading and sharing, John! 🙂
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You are most welcome, Susan!
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I hearby testify that Susan Uttendorfsky never marked a legitimate use of ‘was’ as a passive voice during her editing of my novels.
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Hahahaha! Thank you, Massimo. ❤
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