*ominous music*
Hello, a-dora-ble in the house, but, this time, I'm here to talk about the passive voice! (Cue the ominous music. Again.)
Before we even attempt to understand the whole kerfuffle of whether the passive voice is as terrible as they say it is—then proceed to spray it with pesticides as most writers do when it springs up in their writing—let's start from the nitty-gritty basics.
What is the voice in English grammar?
It isn't that little voice in your head, the voice of reason, that pipes up whenever you consider doing something stupid. Like, stealing a cookie from the cookie jar DESPITE the threats from your mother. Nor is it either Kronk's—from The Emperor's New Groove—shoulder angel or shoulder devil.
Nope, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action expressed by said verb, and all the players identified by its argument (i.e subject, object, and so on and so forth). Which leads us to the next part.
What is the active voice?
The active voice puts all the elements of a sentence in a logical order:
Actor + Action + Receiver or Product of Action.
For example:
1. The boy (=Actor) played (=Action) in the sandbox (=Receiver of action).
2. The car (=Actor) drove away (=Action) into the sunset (=Receiver of action).
3. Jeremy (=Actor) broke (=Action) the vase (=Receiver of action).
What is the passive voice?
The passive voice reverses the order of these elements. The noun/noun phrase that would be the object of an active sentence appears as the subject of a sentence with passive voice.
Receiver or Product of Action + Action + Actor
1. In the sandbox (=Receiver of action), played (=Action) the boy (=Actor).
2. Into the sunset (=Receiver of action), drove away (=Action) the car (=Actor).
3. The vase (=Receiver of action) was broken (=Action) by Jeremy (=Actor).
OR
3.a The vase was broken.
-:-
"Why does everybody hate me?" asked the passive voice, impassively.
Now, my friend, there are a couple of reasons why:
1. It tends to overlook, and sometimes even completely ignore, the actor, which leads to ambiguity.
e.g. The vase was broken.
Who broke the vase? Was it the cat? A poltergeist? No, it was Jeremy. But you, the reader, didn't know that because it wasn't specified.
2. As I've said, the passive voice inverts the logical progression of a sentence. This discombobulates us humans, especially since we love having things nice and logical. It's especially more confusing when the sentence is very long and/or technical.
e.g. Special training is necessitated with respect to the regulations by those responsible for shipping dangerous goods.
Wow. Slam the brakes there, Buster. I didn't understand a word of what you just said. Let's re-write this using the active voice.
Those responsible for shipping dangerous goods necessitate special training in the regulations.
Much better right?
-:-
"I can't be that bad," scoffed the passive voice, hands on hips.
Actually, you may be right. The passive voice isn't all that bad! In fact, there are some instances in our writing where the passive voice would be better suited than the active voice, especially when you're trying to place emphasis on the receiver or product of the action rather than the actor. Here's an example.
Active voice: Bob Stevenson and Jerry Timson founded the wax museum in 1978.
Passive voice: The wax museum was founded in 1978.
The sentence which uses the active voice takes our attention away from the wax museum and forces us to focus on Bob and Jerry. By using the passive voice, our entire attention is on the wax museum, which is what we care about.
The passive voice is also beneficial when we don't need to know who the actor of the sentence is, or when we don't know their identity.
-:-
So do we use the passive voice or do we not, Dora? I'm confused!
The best way to put it is like this: the active voice is like the default settings of your computer. The passive voice is all that extra stuff you download. Download too much, and you will overload your system, and even get a virus! Then you'll have to bring it to an expert, who will charge you over 50 dollars just to spend five minutes—okay I got a little side-tracked there.
Basically, stick to the active voice, but only use the passive voice for (sparingly) stylistic purposes.
Biblio:
https://www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/bien-well/fra-eng/grammaire-grammar/voix-voice-eng.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_(grammar)
YOU ARE READING
Epic Advice and Encouragement (EAE)
RandomSo, this is going to be our advice and encouragement book. Here, we will offer advice on issues that are brought to our attention and we will all attempt to explain it in a way that will be able to help. There will be things that we will disagree on...
