Active and

Passive Voice

Changing passive tense

verbs to active verbs!

Active

vs.

Passive

In a

sentence

with active

voice, the

subject is

doing the

action.

In a

sentence

with

passive

voice, the

object of

the action

is promoted

to the

subject

position.

Active

Voice

Exa

mple

1

"Steve loves Amy."

Steve is the subject,

and he is doing the

action: he loves

Amy, the object of

the sentence.

Active

Voice

Exa

mple

2Another example is the

title of the Marvin Gaye

song “I Heard It

through the

Grapevine.” "I" is the

subject, the one who is

doing the action. "I" is

hearing "it," the object

of the sentence.

Passive

Voice

Exa

mple

1"Amy is loved by Steve."

The subject of the

sentence becomes Amy,

but she isn't doing

anything. Rather, she is

just the recipient of

Steve's love. The focus of

the sentence has

changed from Steve to

Amy.

Why would you want to change

the focus?????????

Passive

Voice

Exa

mple

2If you wanted to

make the title of the

Marvin Gaye song

passive, you would

say “It was heard by

me through the

grapevine,” not

such a catchy title

anymore.

Not

all

sente

nce

s w

ith t

he v

erb

“to

be

are

pass

ive!!

! “I am holding a pen”

uses the ‘to be’ verb

‘am,’ but it’s in active

voice, not passive. The

passive voice version

would be “The pen is

being held by me.”

Is Passive

Voice

Bad?

Passive voice is often

wordy, vague, or

awkward. If I say, “Amy is

loved,” you don’t know

who loves Amy. Passive

voice is useful when you

want to change the focus

or shift the focus

elsewhere.

“Your gas will be turned

off” sounds friendlier

than “We, the gas

company, are turning

off your gas!”

Source: http://grammar.q

uickanddirtytips.com/active-voice-versus-passive-voice.aspx

Written by Mignon Fogarty

A Quick Word

on Fragments

Fragm

ents

A fragment is a clause

that is missing either a

subject, verb, or both

and doesn’t express a

complete thought.

A tip

for

catch

ing

fragm

ents

Generally, if you read

your paper backwards

(from end to

beginning), you will

find that you catch the

fragments easily.