Tutor Tip Tuesday: Avoiding Passive Voice

Odds are, if you’re majoring in one of the humanities, then you’ve heard one of your professors talk about writing in the passive voice.  You might have even used the passive voice in one your papers, at which point your professor might have even given you a gentle chewing out.  Personally, I can’t disagree.  I’m a historian, and we especially loathe the passive voice because it is indirect, obscure, and, for lack of a better word, so passive.  Now, before my friends who are in the sciences get too upset with me, I’ll concede that the passive voice is acceptable in some disciplines (like science and engineering).  That said, because there are different contexts where it either is or is not acceptable to use the passive voice, it is important to be able to know what it is, what it sounds like, and how to change it, if need be, to the active voice.

So, what is the passive voice?  You are using the passive voice when you construct a sentence where the subject is being acted upon, rather than being the actor.  Here are two examples:

1.       Alabama was beaten by Auburn in the Iron Bowl.

In this sentence, Alabama is the subject, and it is being acted upon by Auburn(or Chris Davis, if you wanted to be really specific).  The construction is passive because instead of Alabama beating someone, Alabama is taking a beating.  Here is another example:

2.      Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth.

Again, we have a subject, Honest Abe, who is being acted upon.  Put another way the subject, Lincoln, is passive because he is being shot by Booth. [1]

Now that we know how and why this type of construction qualifies as passive, we have to ask ourselves, how do we modify them to be active?  It is actually easy in these cases.  For example:

1.      Auburn beat Alabama in the Iron Bowl.

We know, buddy. We think switching from passive to active voice is mindblowing, too.

and

2.      John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln.

Did you really have to use that as an example?

In these cases we changed the subjects to Auburn and John Wilkes Booth, and they are now acting upon Alabama and Abraham Lincoln, respectively.   The constructions are now active, we know who is doing what to who, we’re being direct, we’re being clear, and, most importantly, we’re avoiding the passive voice.

Happy writing.

- Jake

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[1] As an aside, it hurts me to have to use the passive voice to describe the passive voice.  It is what it is, though.

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Meet the Staff Monday: Jake Clawson

Consultant: Jake Clawson

Major:  PhD in History

Year: 3rd year

What do you like doing best in your spare time?  
I ran college cross country and track when I was an undergraduate, so I still enjoy going out and running every day.

What’s the best advice anyone has ever given you about writing?
The first thing that comes to mind is Hemingway’s line about “the first draft of anything,” but that’s probably a little too crass for the blog.  So, I’ll go with the second best piece of writing advice anyone has ever given me.  I had turned in a book review for a class during my first semester of graduate school, and next to my summary of the author’s argument my professor wrote, “Get to the point.”  It was the best advice I’ve ever gotten because it was so blunt that I’ll never forget it, and because I think being clear and concise are the marks of a good writer (at least for writing history).

What has been the most rewarding part of your job at the Miller Writing Center?  
I’ve really enjoyed getting to work with writers from a variety of disciplines.  Obviously, I’ve worked with a lot of the freshmen in the composition classes, and that’s been fun.  Also, though, I’ve enjoyed working with other graduate students who are in disciplines much different from my own, like business and science.  I learn something new every time, and I get to talk to other people about how they go through the writing process.

Is there anything challenging about your job? If so, what is it?
Working with science writing.  I can’t get used to passive voice

Hidden talent?
I can touch my nose with my tongue.  Does that count?
(Staff response: That definitely counts.)

Any good book recommendations?   
Right now I’m reading Edmund Morgan’s American Slavery, American Freedom:  The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia.  Morgan addresses the salient paradox of early American history, specifically, how colonial Virginians could be so insistent on maintaining their liberties and freedom as Englishmen while also basing their society on African slavery.  Morgan has a keen eye for historical analysis, and he’s a great writer.  Although I’m a Civil War historian, it’s probably the most important book written about American history in the past 50 years.

You can work with Jake in our Athletics location of the Writing Center on Monday from 5-9PM, Tuesdays from 5-6PM, and Wednesdays from 5-7PM!

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