Use of Passive and Active Voice

1. Use of Passive and Active Voice Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

2. Steps in this tutorial • 1) State the goals of this tutorial • 2) What are active and passive voice • 3) Examples of active and passive voice • 4) How they differ • 5) How we use them in psychology writing • 6) How to change passive to active voice Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

3. Goal • To explain what active and passive voice are in writing • To explain why active voice is usually the better choice for science writing • To help you learn how to write with active voice instead of passive voice Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

4. Objectives • By the end of this tutorial you should be able to • Articulate what passive and active voice are • Recognize them in writing • Understand how we use them in psychology writing • Change passive voice phrasing to active voice in your own writing Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

5. What are Active and Passive voice? • Active and passive voice refers to whether the subject or the object in the sentence performs the action of the verb • In active voice the subject performs the action of the verb • In passive voice the object performs the action of the verb Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

6. Active Voice • The subject performs the action of the verb • Example: The student presented the talk. The subject The action of the verb Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

7. Active Voice • The subject performs the action of the verb • Example: The article summarized the research The subject The action of the verb Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

8. Passive Voice • The object performs the action of the verb The talk was presented by the student The action of the verb The object Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

9. Passive Voice • The object performs the action of the verb • Example: The research was summarized by the article The object The action of the verb Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

10. How do Active and Passive voice Differ? • The examples just shown are the same in terms of what actually happens • In both cases the student did the presenting • In both cases the article did the summarizing • So how are they different? Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

11. How do Active and Passive Voice Differ? • Active voice is direct • The subject directly acts on the object • The tone is clear and immediate • As if you throw a ball directly at a target • The target gets all the force of the ball Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

12. Active Voice Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

13. How do Active and Passive voice differ? • Passive voice is indirect • The subject is acted ON by the object • The tone is roundabout • As if you bounce a ball off a wall to hit a target • The wall and the target both get some of the force of the ball • So the impact is not as strong or clear Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

14. Passive Voice Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

15. Using Active and Passive Voice in Psychology Writing • APA recommends the use of active rather than passive voice • Good writing usually uses both active and passive voice • Active voice is very direct, so if you use it all the time, the reader may feel a bit like she is being hollered at • Passive voice is indirect, so if you use it all the time the reader will have a hard time following your argument Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

16. Using Active and Passive Voice in Psychology Writing • Psychology writing is objective • Writing should be clear • We don’t want to make the reader work too hard • If you aren’t certain which voice to use, you are probably better off choosing active voice, rather than passive voice. • But it is ideal if you can use some of each Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

17. Changing Passive to Active Voice-Example • Here is a bad example of using passive voice in a psychology paper Depression has been researched by scientists for decades. • There is no reason to use passive voice, it makes the sentence harder to follow. A preferred version uses active voice: Scientists have researched depression for decades. Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

18. Changing Passive to Active Voice-Example 2 • Here is a 2nd bad example of using passive voice in a psychology paper Surveys were handed out to participants by research assistants. • This sentence makes the research process sound rather mysterious. A preferred version uses active voice: Research assistants handed surveys out to the participants. Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

19. Summary • This tutorial presented and explained the differences between active and passive voice in writing • It explained why active voice is generally preferred • And noted that APA recommends the use of active voice • It gave examples of how to change typical sentences from passive to active voice Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell