The "you" isn't in that sentence, but we know it means "You call the client about the meeting on Thursday." That is called "you understood," meaning we understand the actor is "you." As a result, it is in active voice. This is an example:Ĭall the client about meeting on Thursday. This sentence doesn't look like it has an actor, but the actor is "you understood," meaning we know that the subject is "you," even though we don't use "you" in the sentence. Two ways of writing sentences are active, even though they may look like the text contains no actor: When issues come up about the pipeline and what happened, the reader won't have to be Sherlock Holmes to discover who was involved.
Now the reader knows who discovered the cracks, who decided to replace them, who engaged the contractor, and who did the work. After the contractor completed the work, the leaks stopped. The plant maintenance manager decided to replace the three joints and had the contracting department engage a contractor. The foreman inspected the pipeline and discovered cracks at three joints. After the work was completed, the leaks stopped.Ĭhange the passive voice sentences to active voice unless you have a good reason to use passive voice: The decision was made to replace the three joints and a contractor was engaged. The pipeline was inspected and was found to have cracks at three joints. This report is made up entirely of passive voice sentences:
Even if the reader has an idea of who the actor is, passive voice creates weak sentences that don't communicate immediately and emphatically. At times the identity is obvious, but often it isn't.
Passive voice makes the writing unclear by keeping the identity of the actor secret. The sentence is still in passive voice if the actor is specified later in the sentence: "The report was written yesterday by the manager." In passive voice, the person acting isn't specified: "The report was written yesterday." It could have been written by the secretary, the manager, or Albert Einstein-we don't know. In active voice, the person acting is clear: "The manager wrote the report yesterday." The person acting is the manager. English verbs have two voices: active voice and passive voice.
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