The Evils of Passive Voice

I think at one point or another, some businessman or lawyer decided passive voice makes someone sound like they know what they are talking about.

“You will be arrested by the officer should you violate the terms of the agreement.”

“This task needs to be completed by you. It will not be done by someone else.”

For those of you who don’t know what passive voice is, it is when what should be the subject of a sentence becomes the object. For example:

The grass on the hills was blown by the wind and it rippled like the water in a pond.

In this sentence, if it were phrased in active voice, “the wind” should be the subject, and “the grass” should be the object, and the sentence should read as follows:

The wind blew the grass on the hills, and it rippled like the water in a pond.

Wow, so now the sentence is shorter, sounds better, and it is clearer to the reader exactly who is doing what. Now passive voice is not always wrong, but nine times out of ten, you’d be better off without it. Some people are better at naturally eliminating it than others. But if you eliminate the majority of passive voice in your writing, I can guarantee you it will immediately sound stronger.

This is one of those things where, although there is not one particular way to write so that your writing will be considered (there’s the good old passive voice finding its way into my writing) good, pretty much anyone can benefit from the elimination of passive voice. Especially if you’re relatively new to the writing scene, I highly recommend you review some pieces of your writing with a marker and circle any places where the passive voice appears. A good indicator of passive voice is the word “by”, although this is not always the case (as shown in this paragraph), and sometimes passive voice can be sneaky. But it’s your job to polish your piece to the best of your ability, and that includes the obliteration (maybe that’s an extreme word, maybe) of passive voice from your work.

Don't agree with me? Have something to contribute? Please comment below. I welcome any criticism as well as discussion.