The Importance of the Passive Voice in Academic Writing

The Importance of the Passive Voice in Academic Writing

William DietzWriting Specialist

Student Learning and Support Center

First , let us agree on some definitions of terms….

What is the subject of the following sentences?

• Tom chases Jerry.• The secretary answered the telephone.• Brazil exports coffee.• The dog bit the child.• The doctor gave me a prescription.

What is the direct object of the verb ?What is the “do-er” of the action of the verb in each sentence?

In English, a sentence can be in the active voice or the passive voice.

• All of the sentences that we have looked at are in the active voice.

• This is because the grammatical subject of the sentence is one and the same as the “do-er” of the action.

Passive voice

In the passive voice it is the “receiver” of the action of the verb that functions as the grammatical subject.

So if we change the sentences we looked at from active to passive, they would look like this :

• Tom chases Jerry. Jerry is chased by Tom.• The secretary answered the phone. The

telephone was answered by the secretary. • Brazil exports coffee. Coffee is exported by

Brazil.• The dog bit the child. The child was bitten by

the dog.• The doctor gave me a prescription I was given a

prescription by the doctor.

You can change a sentence from active to passive by following these steps:

• First, move the direct object to the front:Tom chases Jerry. Jerry Tom chases.

• Second, put the verb after the direct object.Jerry Tom chases. Jerry chases Tom.

• Third, change the verb to its past participle:Jerry chases Tom. Jerry chased Tom.

• Fourth, depending on the tense, add a “be” verb before the past participle.Jerry chased Tom. Jerry is chased Tom.• Fifth and finally, add the word “by” before the

original subject:Jerry is chased Tom.

Jerry is chased by Tom.

Note that the passive verb construction consists of two parts

• The “be” verb • The past participle of the verb. The past

participle is usually formed by adding –ed to the verb, but is often irregular.

For example:Was + attackedAm + called butIs + spoken

In passive voice sentences , mention of the agent is optional. That is, bothJerry was chased by Tom. and Jerry was chased. either way, with or without mention of the agent, are grammatical.

Note also:

• The passive is not a tense like past or present. Instead, it can be any tense, with the “be” verb expressing the tense, and the past participle remaining the same.

• The passive can be used with modals: e.g., can be attacked, should be attacked, etc.,

What is the passive of the following active verb constructions

• Is going to open• Had prepared• Would have chosen• Will have completed• Had investigated

• Is going to be opened.• Had been prepared.• Would have been chosen.• Will have been completed• Had been investigated

The “be” verb and the past participle can be separated by an adverb. For example:

• The original purpose of the law is often misunderstood.

• The Swedish language is widely spoken in Finland.

The passive can also occur in gerunds and infinitives.For example:

• Being chosen as class president was the greatest experience of my life.

• Grasso was the first woman to be elected governor.

Please decide whether the following are in the active or passive voice.

• That strange noise can be distinctly heard throughout the city.

• This news surprised me.• He had just been reelected president.• The book discussed some interesting

questions.• I was hurt by what you said.• Where will the ceremony be held?

Worksheet for “ The Importance of the Passive Voice in Academic Writing”

• Please change the following from active to passive voice. • Shakespeare wrote “Hamlet”. Hamlet was written by

Shakespeare.• Bell invented the telephone.• Leonardo da Vinci painted the “Mona Lisa”.• Shigeyoshi Matsumae founded Tokai University.• Marie Curie discovered radium.• Orson Welles directed the movie “Citizen Kane”.• Heath Ledger played the role of the Joker in the movie

“Batman”.


II. Please change the following from active to passive voice.

1. People in Brazil speak Portuguese. Portuguese is spoken in Brazil.2. People in Kansas grow corn.3. People in Canada speak English and French.4. People mine phosphates in Morocco.5. In the US, people hold presidential elections every four years.6. People make plastic from petroleum.7. In Qatar and Saudi Arabia, people desalinate sea water.8. The doctor gave him some pain relievers.


III. Please change the following from active to passive voice.1. People have understood the dangers of smoking for several decades now.2. The repairmen are fixing my car.3. The limousine took us to the American embassy.4. Oxford University Press will publish the book next year.5. The government should ban smoking in public places.6. By the time we arrived there, the store had sold all the eggs.


I. Please choose the correct word to complete the following sentences.

1) The cars were _______ by the thieves. a) stealed b) stole c) stolen

2) After his death, his great deeds were _______ by his descendents. a) forgotten b) forgot c) forgetted

3) All of the food was _______ by the guests. a) ate b) eaten c) aten

4) The lunar eclipse was ______ by people all over the world. a) saw b) seen c) sewn

5) That airplane was _______ by soldiers in World War Two. a) fly b) flew c) flown

6) In 2005 New Orleans was _____ by a major hurricane. a) hitten b) hit c) hitted

Answer Key• i.• 1) “Hamlet” was written by Shakespeare.• 2) The telephone was invented by Bell.• 3) The “Mona Lisa “ was painted by Leonardo da Vinci.• 4) Tokai University was founded by Shigeyoshi Matsumae.• 5) Radium was discovered by Marie Curie.• 6) The movie “Citizen Kane” was directed by Orson Welles.• 7) The role of the Joker in the movie “Batman” was played by Heath Ledger.• ii • 1) Portuguese is spoken in Brazil.• 2) Corn is grown in Kansas.• 3) French and English are spoken in Canada.• 4) Phosphates are mined in Morocco.• 5) Presidential elections are held every four years.• 6) Plastic is made from petroleum.• 7) In Qatar and Saudi Arabia, sea water is desalinated.• 8) He was given some pain relievers by the doctor.

• iii • 1) The dangers of smoking have been known for several decades now.• 2) My car is being fixed by the repairmen.• 3) We were taken to the American embassy by the limousine.• 4) The book will be published next year by Oxford University Press.• 5) Smoking in public places should be banned by the government.• 6) By the time I arrived there , all the eggs had already been sold by the store.

• iv 1. Stolen; 2. Forgotten; 3. Eaten; 4. Seen; 5. Flown; 6. Hit

Please take note of the following common mistakes in the use of the passive voice:

• Mona Lisa considered the greatest painting of the Italian Renaissance.

• The book assigned to all students of the class.• The accident was happened at about seven

o’clock at night.• I surprised when I heard the news.

Why would we use the passive instead of the active?

• Generally overuse of the passive can make your writing indirect, wordy and imprecise.

• However there are important exceptions to this.

• The passive voice is very helpful to you in the following cases:

The passive should be used when your focus is the recipient of the action rather than the agent.

Consider the following examples:

• The old man was diagnosed with leukemia . • The system was designed to solve such

discrepancies. • At this point, the solution was heated to 150

degrees Celsius.

Putting these three sentences in the active voice means that you have to begin the sentence with mentioning the agent, even if the agent is not your real focus, or when the agent is unknown, or when mention of the agent is understood or redundant.

Compare

• The old man was diagnosed with leukemia .

• The system has been designed to solve such discrepancies.

• At a later stage, the solution will be heated to 150 degrees Celsius.

• The doctor diagnosed the old man with leukemia.

• The person who designed the system has designed it to solve such discrepancies.

• At a later stage, we will heat the solution to 150 degrees Celsius.

Consider the following examples

• People grow qat in Yemen.• Factory workers made these Christmas

ornaments in China.Versus:• Qat is grown in Yemen.• These Christmas ornaments were made in

China.

By contrast, if you are interested in who was doing the action you might choose to use the

active voice:• Political prisoners in China made these

Christmas ornaments.• My grandfather is growing qat in his backyard!

Sometimes the tone of your writing will sound more academic when you avoid using personal pronouns. Use of the passive voice allows the writer to avoid using personal pronouns. For example, compare: “As we can see, Dubai has grown exponentially over the past twenty years.”Versus“As can be seen, Dubai has grown exponentially over the past twenty years.”

Or to take another example:

• The reasons for supporting capital punishment, as I have observed in the previous section, are nor especially persuasive.

Versus

• The reasons for supporting capital punishment, as has been observed in the previous section, are not especially persuasive.

Use of the passive voice, by eliminating or downplaying mention of the agent, can make your writing sound more objective.Compare:Zimbardo (1999) has defined chronic shyness as “a fear of negative evaluation accompanied by emotional stress or inhibition.”VersusShyness has been defined as “a fear of negative evaluation accompanied by emotional stress or inhibition (Zimbardo, 1999).

• Using the passive voice can help create the impression that something is a generally accepted, uncontroversial truth, and therefore does not require specific support . For example:

• George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are generally considered the greatest American presidents.

• Bamboo is classified as a grass.• David Hume is today remembered more as a

philosopher than as a historian.

• This is the opposite of the case of thesis statements, because a thesis statement is precisely the proposition that you are going to defend in the body of your paper.

• In this case the active voice is encouraged.• You can use the passive voice , but the agents

have to be explicitly mentioned.

For example:

• Cancer is most commonly caused by diet , genes, and smoking.

• Earthquake faults are chiefly classified as normal, reverse, or strike-slip.

• Labor disputes can be resolved through either arbitration or mediation.

• Finally, occasional use of the passive voice may improve the cohesion or “flow” of your sentences.

Please compare

• Lorenzo arrived in Paris as a down-at-heel political refugee without friends or money. Luckily, France was ruled at that time by an Italian, Cardinal Mazarin.

• Lorenzo arrived in Paris as a down-at-heel political refugee without friends or money. Luckily, Cardinal Mazarin, an Italian, ruled France at that time.

When is it proper to use passive voice? Consider these instances. Why do you suppose passive voice is appropriate? 1) My camera was stolen from my locker at school.2) A candle will be lit at the memorial service for the fallen soldier.3) Diets are made to be broken.4) The sodium hydroxide solution was heated to 200 degrees.

Possible answers1) Who stole the camera? The agent is unknown. If you do not know who committed an action, it is appropriate to use passive voice.

2) Who do you want to receive the attention? If you prefer the attention to be on the action itself (the candle being lit) and not the person doing the lighting, you may omit the agent.

3) You are expressing a general truth that is applicable to many. Using active voice to express this idea would be awkward: People who make diets make them to be broken.

4) Researchers often use passive voice in scientific reports. It is assumed that the reader knows that the experimenters are performing the actions without stating this fact explicitly. But, according to the University of Toronto, this trend is on the decline. Recent papers tend to contain more examples of active voice.

Thank you for coming!

Documents

The Importance of the Passive Voice in Academic Writing