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It is usually recommended to use active voice in a write-up. Editors prefer them for the same reason. You may wonder what the problem with the passive voice is. There is no problem with the passive voice. But in certain instances, sentences become challenging to read due to the length and lack of clarity. Although you do not have to avoid using passive voice, you should try to use it wherever feasible. Active voice will enhance your writing and help the search engine optimization of your website (SEO).
Table of Contents
What Is Passive Voice and How Does It Work?
The passive voice is an indirect approach to writing a sentence. The subject of a phrase derives an action from the verb that follows it.
For example, The American team purchased the kit.
When phrased in the passive form, the statement becomes: The kid was purchased by the team America. While there is no grammatical error, the statement sounds odd. The statement sounds convoluted.
The subject and object roles are interchanged in a passive voice sentence. The subject acts as the object, with the verb’s action.
How to Identify Passive Voice?
Yes, and it’s quite straightforward. Examine what occurred and who was accountable for it to recognize the passive voice. It’s a passive voice if the person or object accountable for the acts is either missing or appears in the phrase after the event. Else check out whether if a past participle appears immediately after the form of “to be.”
Why would you want to avoid using the passive voice?
If you use passive voice, your writing seems remote and your message less obvious. This is due to two key factors:
1. It is lengthy.
To begin with, passive phrases are lengthy. The passive sentence is just lengthier than the active sentence.
1. Using the passive voice nearly always obscures your point.
2. Using the passive voice nearly always makes your statement less obvious.
You use the passive to express the same meaning, but you add more words. This might build up if you use the inactive form a lot in your writing.
2. The sentence pattern is difficult to understand.
Second, the passive voice employs a phrase construction that requires more mental effort. Making meaning of the statement will take up crucial working memory for your reader. This reduces your chances of getting your message through.
Let’s take a look at why the passive form needs more work. The active sentence form in English is extremely consistent and sensible. The passive voice completely reverses the situation. Understand the subject which is getting impacted. After then, you read about what happened to it. Finally, you’ll discover how it was affected. Only at the very end do you find out who or what was to blame. This sequence is different from how we usually interpret occurrences.
Furthermore, passive voice would generate a picture of what occurs takes a fraction of a second longer. However, if you abuse the passive voice, these instances may quickly pile up.
There is no advantage to adopting the passive since the active phrase communicates the same information. Hence, an active option is better than a passive voice.
Active voice versus passive voice
On the other hand, active voice is a more direct writing style that emphasizes the topic of a phrase. The subject of an active voice sentence is positioned at or near the beginning of the phrase, where it acts as the verb. The object follows the verb and gets the action of the verb.
The order of these parts, as well as how they are employed, distinguishes passive and active voice. The subject comes first in active voice. Then comes the verb, and then the object.
The object is placed at the start of a sentence and the subject is shifted to the end of the sentence when using passive voice.
In the phrases below, the subject is “kid,” and the verb is “nibbled”
Example:
Active:
The kid nibbled a biscuit.
Passive:
The biscuit was nibbled by the kid.
A statement written in the passive voice makes the subject less effective, making the phrase less obvious. The problem is it becomes difficult to identify the subject and what the subject is doing on what. The purpose is also lost sometimes or concealed. This layout might perplex or mislead the reader unless you have previously made the topic obvious. Passive words may also absolve the subject of culpability for an action.
Increases the number of words:
Sentences written in a passive voice consume more words. On the other hand, active voice sentences consume fewer words. There is a possibility that a 50 words essay in active voice may take up hundred to 150 words in the passive voice.
As a result, employing passive voice will increase the number of words on your page.
When it comes to a website’s content, a large word count is usually a positive aspect. The more words utilized in the content of a web page, the more keywords it may rank for. The issue with the use of passive voice is that it adds extra words to the sentence. This happens as one or more prepositions are usually added. Unfortunately, these prepositions are worthless.
SEO and the Passive Voice
We all know that Google favors websites that publish unique, high-quality material regularly. Google enhances the user experience by ranking these pages higher. Simply put, it’s no wonder that readers favor websites that deliver valuable, distinctive, and entertaining content. Regrettably, pinpointing the characteristics that define high-quality writing material is challenging. It’s hard to identify terrible writing because no one would agree on a definition. This is one of the reasons why it is always recommended to use an active voice while writing a blog or article.
Due to all these reasons, assignment help companies prefer to use active voice.
Conclusion:
Active voice is the preferred choice of the writers, as it concisely conveys the idea. On the other hand, the passive voice increases the number of words unnecessarily. There is nothing wrong with using passive voice. However, use active voice wherever possible. You need to understand how to identify passive voice if you’re editing.
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