Avoiding the "passive voice" .... really?

[HavinAThink]

When I write documents for work, Microsoft Word underlines, and tells me I should "consider revising", sentences that are in the passive voice (e.g. HR will be the first department to be provided with the new ID cards).

Normally I ignore it, but today I googled it, and it turns out many people (though possibly just in the US) have been told by their teachers and lecturers that good writing uses the active voice not the passive voice.

Surely that's bollocks? My DCs were taught the difference between the active and passive voice, but as far as I know they weren't told that one is superior to the other, and neither was I when I was at school.

I'm about to change my MS Word settings so I don't need to be bothered by it again. AIBU?

Plain English guidelines specify the Active voice, and have done for at least the last 15 years

How would you change the sentence in your example to be active? HR will be the first department to be in receipt of?

Erm, yep. Clear, direct writing usually uses the active voice so in a business context that's usually the one you want to choose. Fewer words too, which is useful for getting the point across.

TeaBelle

HR will get the new ID cards first.

HR will be the first department to receive the new ID cards.....?

Depends on the purpose of the writhing though - academic writing errs towards passive or did last time I wrote something academic!

Passive voice is usually more wishy washy. They also leave it vague who should be doing the thing.

The lightbulbs should be changed.
The maintenance team should change the lightbulbs.

PPs your rewrites are all still in the passive! This sentence is a bit difficult to write in the active as there is no obvious subject for the verb “provide”.

Thank you everyone

The active voice is better generally.

For example, ‘The organisation will provide new ID cards to the HR department first’ is simpler and clearer than your version.

"We will provide the new ID cards to the HR department first, then to the other departments..."

Use of the passive voice drives me nuts in a lot a documents I have to review at work, as it is often ambiguous who has to do something or with whom. I am forever suggesting amendments to put things into the active voice. In a business context (and especially a contractual one) the passive voice can lead to problematic ambiguity. I often find that the actual process hasn't been properly thought through when things are not in the active voice.

A rule of thumb I heard to identifying the passive voice is to see if you can 'by zombies' to the end of the sentence

'HR will be the first to be provided with the new ID cards... by zombies.'
'The door was closed... by zombies.'

MaryThorne Would you mind giving some examples please? Making it clear which is the active and which is passive. It's rarely clear to me and I would love to get to grips with this. Thanks.

I always try to write in an active voice professionally (I'm in PR / Marketing) and get quite irritated by constantly reading copy written in the passive voice which I think some people mistakenly believe to sound posher / more impressive

I think passive can be vague, but isn't always. Sometimes it makes sense, e.g. Tory voters will be ejected via the back door.

Other times, the sentence needs punching up.

All depends on the purpose. Know your audience and tailor it accordingly.

Pengggwn I would prefer "I will eject Tory voters out of the back door"

Sometimes the active voice is more appropriate and sometimes the passive voice is most suitable. It depends on the purpose of the writing.

@village shop: I've copied and pasted from some TA grammar training that I did to show the difference between the active and passive voice. The examples are supposed to have pictures and labels going to the different words (which made it a lot clearer), but they wouldn't copy over.

A sentence using the ACTIVE voice is one where the subject of the sentence carries out the action described by the verb and the object of the sentence has the action done to it.
Eg: "The mouse (subject) frightened (verb) the cat (object)."

A sentence using the PASSIVE verb is one where the usual order is reversed. The action done to the object of the sentence is described. If the subject is included in the sentence, it is usually at the end.
Eg: "The cat (object) was frightened (verb) by the mouse (subject)."

Sometimes, in the passive mode, the agent (subject) can be left out completely.
Eg: The cat was frightened.

Sentences with passive verbs are more often used in written than in spoken English. It sounds more formal and impersonal and so is often used in:

• reports of crimes - He was sentenced to two years in jail

• newspaper reports - The football match was cancelled.

• When it isn’t important who performed the action eg in scientific writing – The tripod was moved away from the flame.

• announcements - The 13:15 train to York has been delayed.

• notices – Customers are asked not to smoke.

• To avoid admitting responsibility – mistakes were made (companies and politicians love this - it avoids saying who made the mistake, so they don't truly admit responsibility)

• When you want to save new or important information until the end of the sentence for emphasis: The picture was painted by Constable

• When you do not know who performed the action: A valuable painting was stolen from the museum last night.

Normally I ignore it, but today I googled it, and it turns out many people (though possibly just in the US) have been told by their teachers and lecturers that good writing uses the active voice not the passive voice

I'm not sure why you think this is just in the US or just recently. I was being taught over 20 years ago in the UK to use the active voice.

The unreasonableness was done by you.

I often think how much better our society would be with the passive voice, everyone more accountable for everything they do. The number of times you hear on a day-to-day basis bureaucrats, politicians, media and business people hiding responsibility for actions in the passive voice. Also, yes, the passive voice can be a bit clunky and grating if not used properly, such as by less experienced writers like high school students, etc.

@MaryThorne I feel your pain. I work in software engineering, and frequently have to remind people that they can't write things like "the software will be provided with the user's details" - it's incredibly important to explain who will be doing the providing!

As people say it's because the passive voice is unclear. It might not be obvious who is perforning the action.

The passive voice will bring a document's readability score down. That, long sentences (often this is 20 words and over) and as words with over three syllables. At times these things feel impossible to avoid, 😣.

You can have a certain percentage of a document in the passive voice (for Plain English). But it's quite a low percentage.

I face a daily battle with the passive voice. I'm not in the US.