Change into passive voice online how to#

“This is one of the rare occasions where passive voice is preferred over active voice” I can’t attach a recording of me reading out a blog but here are some passive-voice sentences I picked up. It’s much easier to hear an awkward-sounding sentence than identify it in a written block of text. When you hear your sentences sounding wordy and awkward - that’s passive voice rearing its ugly head. If you have a complex sentence to evaluate, break it into pieces. The takeaway: identify your actor and make sure he/she/it starts your sentence. Let’s start with a simple example: “I made the tea this morning”. In short, your sentences should be structured as actor>action>receiver This quick exercise has helped me time and again. Go through your articles and make sure the subject performs the action. The ball was thrown through the closed window by a ghost? -OR- Dad threw the ball through the window and is now hiding behind the couch.The lamp was broken, huh? -OR maybe - Ashley broke the lamp.Was the orange juice spilled on the carpet? -OR- Did you spill the orange juice?.So, my mom would respond in ACTIVE voice: She knew the subject (Ashley) performed the action (spilled the juice). How could the subject (me) do these things if the subject (me) was missing from the sentence entirely? How could the subject (me) do something bad if the subject was just loitering at the end of the sentence?īut, you see. The ball was thrown through the closed window by a ghost. The orange juice was spilled on the carpet. “When I was a kid, I tried to avoid punishment by stating my crimes in the passive voice. Anytime you find yourself drifting to a different character’s perspective, catch yourself and hit backspace.Īnd finally, proofread to catch any passive strays.Įarlier this month, I wrote a blog on writing compelling introductions, and “Hegel’s Dialectic” was my main character. Next, begin writing from either the main character’s point of view or yours.

$change into passive voice online$

The point is, your character can be a real human being or an ephemeral trait - you just need to have one. When I write about travel, it’s a destination. For example, when I write about email marketing, my main character is email. Exercise 1: Identify the main characterīefore you begin writing, identify the main character of your story.ĭo this for all forms of writing, not just fiction. They worked wonders for me so I’ve included examples from my own first drafts that you might find helpful.

What’s harder (but you actually need) is a system to naturally gravitate towards the active voice.īut you can practice these exercises every day to make a gradual transition. Yes, they’re accurate, but no writer worth their salt would have any trouble identifying passive voice here. “The war zone was entered by the soldier”, “the murder of Nina had been carried out by Alan”, “the money was lost by Peter” are examples they use. Most of the top-ranking “exercises” are directed at 5th graders. If you Google this section, you’ll find unhelpful results. Exercises to transition to the active voice Passive voice is our brain’s default setting, and you need to make a proactive effort to ditch it. Also the brain monitoring recorded rapid electrochemical activity when there was passive voice. In both groups, students writing in passive voice did so quicker than those writing in the active voice. The second group had blank cards and was asked to write a sentence describing what could be on the cards. The first group was shown images and graphs on their flashcards and was asked to describe them. In a research experiment, the duo showed flashcards to two groups of students and monitored their brain activity. Strang-Ng from Cornell University decided to find out. Even authors who (quite literally) wrote the books on Writing, like William Strunk and George Orwell, default to passive voice occasionally. Humans are hardwired to operate in passive voice. Today I’m going to share my learnings with you so you can avoid the mistakes I made (and retain those top clients).

Change into passive voice online how to#

So I went down a rabbit hole of learning why we talk in passive voice, how to get comfortable with active voice, and practice exercises. I knew something needed to change - and quickly - if I wanted to build a career as a writer. The email read “Bani, we’ve gone through the piece - and while we loved the perspective you bring - our editors don’t have the capacity to correct so many instances of passive voice.” Until I got fired from a project over it. It was my safe space.Īfter all, I'd grown up being told that the passive voice was 'objective,' 'unbiased,' and 'professional.' And I was writing for an educated, intelligent, executive audience - “unprofessional” was the last thing I wanted to be. When I started writing for a digital audience, the passive voice was all I knew.

Turn passive voice to active How I switched from passive to active