When to use passive and active voice?

Question

When is it better to use **passive** voice in writing and speech? When is it better to use **active** voice in writing and speech?

Answer 1

It is almost always better to write with the active voice because writing actively generally means you are writing or speaking more directly. Additionally, with the active voice, you emphasize the concrete character doing something and when people are reading or listening, they want to hear people acting. Active writing is easier to follow.

The only time I write with the passive voice is when I do not want to emphasize a particular individual. For example, look at how a prosecutor and a defense attorney would address a homicide victim.

1. Prosecutor: [Defendant] shot Vic.
2. Defense Attorney: Vic was shot.

Answer 2

Active voice: the actor (whomever or whatever is performing an action in the sentence) is the subject of the sentence.

"I threw the ball."

"My dad paid the bills."

"My brother wrecked the car."

Passive voice: the object of the action in the sentence is the subject of the sentence, and the actor is not.

"The ball was thrown by me."

"The bills were paid by my dad."

"The car was wrecked by my brother."

There may be other small differences in those sentences, which would be chosen by the writer, but would have no impact on voice.

My opinion: because passive voice is nearly always more wordy than active, yet gains you little in most cases (of course there are exceptions) in terms of reader understanding, I personally seldom use it at all. But your mileage may vary, and when it does it'll be based on what you want the focus of your sentence to be: if it's the actor, use active; if it's the object acted upon, use passive. Make your decisions based on the relative importance of the actor and the object acted upon.

Answer 3

As a general rule, it's always better to use active voice. It's strong, direct, and clear.

The biggest exception is when you want to make the subject of the sentence something other than the agent, or "doer". Using active voice, you could write, "When Emily saw her new car for the first time, she gasped at its shiny beauty." But passive voice could describe the same scenario with a different effect: "The new car was so beautiful, so shiny, that when Emily saw it for the first time, she gasped."