How to Change a Sentence from the Passive to Active Voice

Business letters, press releases and other promotional materials are more persuasive when they are written in the active voice. However, many people tend to use the passive voice in their writing without even noticing. These steps will help you to recognize when you have written a sentence in the passive voice and also inform you of how to turn it into the active voice. Your writing will be stronger and easier for the reader to follow.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Learn to recognize when a sentence has been written in the passive voice. This sentence structure can seem to be more polite in spoken language but can be awkward and weak in written communications. The phrase "by him," "by Mrs. Jones" or "by anyone else" follows the verb and indicates who the actor in the sentence is. For example, "The meeting was chaired by Mr. Smith" is a sentence that is written in the passive voice. Notice that the phrase "by Mr. Smith" is at the end of the sentence. Even when there is no phrase beginning with the word, "by", a sentence can be passive as in this example: "The check was cashed."

2. Notice that both of the examples of passive sentences above include a verb phrase made up of a form of the verb, "to be." In both cases here the verb phrase begins with the word, "was." All passive sentences contain verb phrases beginning with some form of the verb, "to be."

3. Remind yourself of what a sentence looks like when it is written in the active voice. The actor of the verb will most likely preceed the verb as the subject of the sentence. Remember that sentence subjects are either nouns or pronouns. "Mrs. Jones hit the gavel against the table to call the meeting to order" is an active sentence. Mrs. Jones is the person who did the action of hitting the gavel. Mrs. Jones is the subject of the sentence.

4. Start with a sentence that you wrote in the passive voice like the first, "The meeting was chaired by Mrs. Jones." To turn this sentence into the active voice first you need to make the subject of the new sentence the person who does the action of the verb, i.e., Mrs. Jones.

5. Change the verb from passive to active by removing the word, "was." The new active verb is "chaired."

6. Recognize that the subject of the passive sentence, "the meeting," will become the direct object of the new active sentence.

7. Leave out the preposition, "by," and change the word order to the active form of subject-verb-object so that the new sentence is: "Mrs. Jones chaired the meeting."

8. Revise all your passive sentences to the active voice using the same strategy.

[susansunrise]

on 10/16/2009 "They love being invited to parties". According to a book this is a passive sentence, but if I say.."they love to be invited to parties". Thre´s not much of a differecne and it´s not a passive. Please help!