![]() It is impossible to make a persuasive argument about the past unless we also know who participated in the making of that past. One of the most challenging parts of writing history is determining who or what was responsible for a particular action, event, or idea. ![]() Historians stress active voice because it tells them about actors. In the first sentence, the subject, “students,” performs the action of the verb, “made,” producing “mistakes.” Similarly, the Union Army acted upon the South, the Knights acted upon the Southwestern Railroad, and the Supreme Court acted upon the NIRA. The Supreme Court declared the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional in 1935. In 1885, the Knights of Labor won a major strike against Jay Gould’s Southwestern Railroad System. The Union Army defeated the Confederacy in 1865. ![]() Students made mistakes with the passive voice. Let’s rewrite our original sentences, putting them in active voice. ![]() Acting here as a linking verb, “was” tells us that the NIRA existed continually in a state of unconstitutionality. In the third sentence, “was” acts like an equal sign in the sentence: NIRA = unconstitutional. The second sentence follows the same pattern but uses a past tense form of the verb “to be.” It tells us that the passenger continued to wait in the past. The train is in the state of coming it is still on its way. Rather than suggesting that the train receives the force of the verbal phrase, “is coming,” the first sentence tells us that the action of the verb is continuing. The present participle (ending in “ing”) stresses the ongoing or continuous nature of an action. In the first two examples, the verbal phrase includes a present instead of a past participle. The following sentences are not in passive voice: While a form of “to be” usually appears in passive verb phrases, it does not signify passive voice by itself. The verb “to be” has eight basic forms: is, are, was, were, been, being, be, and am. Students often mistakenly identify forms of the verb “to be” with passive voice. Helpful Hint: Sometimes an author writes in passive voice but signals the actor of a sentence with the preposition “by.” For example, “the Confederacy was defeated by the Union Army in 1865.” So, another way to think of this sentence is, “The act of defeating the Confederacy was completed in 1865.” Let’s take a look at the second example, “The Confederacy was defeated in 1865.” This sentence is passive because its subject, “The Confederacy,” receives the action of the verb phrase, “was defeated.” In this verb phrase, a past tense form of the verb “to be”-in this case “was”-combines with the past participle of the verb “to defeat.” Past participles often end in “ed” and signal that a verb’s action is completed. Why are these sentences in passive voice? The National Industrial Recovery Act was declared unconstitutional in 1935. ![]() In 1885, a major strike against Jay Gould’s Southwestern Railroad System had been won by the Knights of Labor. Mistakes were made with the passive voice. In the following sentences the passive verb is in bold type: 1 So, a sentence in which the subject performs the verb’s action is in active voice, and a sentence in which the subject receives the force or action of the verb is in passive voice. – that is, whether the subject performs or receives the action of the verb. Understand why historians write in active voiceīefore you can eliminate passive voice, you must first learn what it is and how to locate it in your writing.Īccording to The Chicago Manual of Style, “Voice shows whether the subject acts. Active verbs, on the other hand, focus attention on actors, bringing clarity and forcefulness to your prose.Īvoid common mistakes involving passive voice That’s because passive verbs make your writing boring and confuse your reader. A professor or graduate instructor has probably cautioned you to eliminate passive voice from your writing at one time or another. ![]()
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