Administrative Sparkle Blog

Active and passive sentences convey action. Active sentences are strong, decisive, and self-confident. Passive sentences can appear weak, evasive, and lack ownership. They consist of three components: the actor—the person or thing conducting the action; the action—the verb; and the receiver—the person or thing receiving the action. Keeping these three components in mind when writing will greatly simplify how to construct the ideal sentence structure and assist you in using a more active voice.

1. The first rule is to prefer the active sentence. Active sentences are shorter, crisper, to the point, and carry energy. However, the passive sentence does have their purpose, and at times preferable, in construction under certain circumstances.

2. The passive sentence is used when you don’t know or don’t want to mention the actor. The sentence becomes passive, is actually a preferable use, when you don’t know who or what the “actor” is or mentioning names is not in the best interest of the writing because of the sensitivity or possible ramifications for identifying the actor.

3. The passive sentence is used when the receiver is less important than the actor. The paragraph has more impact and carries more weight using the receiver, while the actor plays a smaller role in what you are trying to express in the sentence.

4. The passive sentence is ideal when structuring the sentence to form a smooth transition from one sentence to the next. For example,

“We have created a system that simplifies the job duties making the process more efficient. The process will be trained to all employees by management to establish conformity and consistency.”

The second sentence is passive. When the second sentence is changed to the active voice, you will see that the active sentence becomes stronger and shorter, but does not transition well from the leading sentence. Seen here:

“We have created a system that simplifies the job duties making the process more efficient. Management will train all employees the process to establish conformity and consistency.”

Keeping the key word “process” closer together improves the fluidity of the passage.

5. Do not use passive sentences to avoid using first person pronouns (I, me, we, or us). Many writers will erroneously avoid identifying the actor as inappropriate use in business and technical writings. When, in fact, leading with a passive voice will convey a message that either does not take ownership or creates vague ambiguity in who the decision maker is.

6. Make a sentence active by switching the sentence or clause around. Sometimes it is just as simple as that.

7. Make sentences active by changing the verb. Use strong verbs or eliminate verbiage that convolutes or weakens the message.

8. Make sentences active by rethinking the sentence. There may be a better way to state the message.

Work with your words or sentence structures and how you want to express your thoughts. Over time and with practice, you will be surprised at how much your overall document will come across confident, direct, clear, and informative. After all, isn’t that really what we’re trying to do in the first place?

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