

The past participle of the verb is used to create passive voice. Use the passive voice when it is more important to focus on the recipient of an action than on who performed the action, such as when describing an experimental setup. When using passive voice, the subject is acted upon.Use the active voice as much as possible to create direct, clear, and concise sentences, especially when you are writing about the actions of people.Perhaps unsurprisingly, active voices are all about action. Students need good study skills to succeed in college. The researchers compared the behavior of two groups of children. Active Voice: The subject of the sentence is the one doing the action. However, writers often overuse the passive voice. But in the active voice, the subject of the sentence does the action: The cat chased the mouse. UNDERSTAND HOW BOTH ACTIVE AND PASSIVE SENTENCES ARE STRUCTURED. If the subject is omitted (e.g., “the cookies were eaten”), it may result in confusion about who performed the action (did the children eat the cookies, or was it the dog?).īoth the active and the passive voice are permitted in APA Style. Passive voic e: the object of the verb is followed by the verb (usually a form of “to be” + past participle + the word “by”) and then the subject (e.g., “the cookies were eaten by the children”).

Active voice: the subject of a sentence is followed by the verb and then the object of the verb (e.g., “the children ate the cookies”).Example: The package has been sent (passive, no object). Example: The ball was thrown by me (passive).

Passive voice means that the object of the sentence behind a preposition, even if no prepositional phrase is present, is doing the action. This makes the sentence sound strong and clear. Active voice means that the subject of the sentence is doing the action. Voice describes the relationship between a verb and the subject and object associated with it. In active voice, the subject of the sentence performs or does the action. Using the active voice in a sentence often means less words are used than in the passive voice.
