Some notes on style

ACTIVE OR PASSIVE VOICE?

Grammatically speaking, the voice refers to whether the subject of a sentence is on the performing or the receiving end of the action. In sentences written in the active voice, the subject is the doer: Bob caught the Frisbee in his teeth (subject is Bob). In sentences written in the passive voice, the subject is acted upon: The Frisbee was caught in Bob's teeth (subject is the Frisbee). In a passive construc­tion, the person or object that is actually performing the action may be referred to in the sentence, but is not the focus of it.

Misuses of voice do not constitute actual errors, but do affect tone, emphasis and readability – all of which are issues of style, not of right and wrong.

ADVANTAGES OF THE ACTIVE VOICE

Some grammar teachers issue a straight dictum to always use the active voice, never the passive. This overly simplistic advice would be better phrased as use the active voice as a general rule, and use the passive voice only if there's a specific reason to do so. The active voice has definite advantages over the passive: It's more direct and concise, and it can make your writing appear more vigor­ous and confident. The passive voice may sound clumsy, plodding or overly cautious in contrast. For example, compare the following sets of sentences:

PASSIVE: When the F1 key is pressed, help information is shown.

MORE DIRECT: When you press the F1 key, help information appears.

YET MORE DIRECT: Press the Fl key to see help information.

PASSIVE: The letter received by Estella stated that legal action would be taken by the company, because her outstanding balance of fourteen cents had still not been paid.

MORE DIRECT: The company sent Estella a letter stating that it was going to take legal action, because she had still not paid her outstanding balance of fourteen cents.

If the doer of the action is not mentioned in the sentence and is not obvious, the result is not only clumsiness but ambiguity.

The gifts given to Harold were much appreciated, although it was wished they smelled a little less pungent.

Who gave Harold the gifts? Who appreciated them? Who wished that they smelled less pungent? Any of the following might be possible:

Harold was very appreciative of the gifts the herbalist gave him, although he wished they smelled a little less pungent.

Harold's wife was very appreciative of the gifts the zookeeper gave him, although Harold wished they smelled a little less pungent.

Harold was very appreciative of the gifts the mad chemist upstairs gave him, although the entire rest of the neighborhood wished they smelled a little less pungent.

It is good practice to scan your writing for sentences that are unnecessarily or inappropriately worded in the passive voice, and convert them to the active.

ADVANTAGES OF THE PASSIVE VOICE

To say that the passive voice is never appropriate is to misunderstand it: Why should it exist at all if its only purpose is to be held up as an example of what not to do? It is preferable to the active voice in the following circumstances:

When the focus is on what's being done to something rather than by something.

For example, it would be better to say The wedding cake had to be carried in by eight strong waiters rather than Eight strong waiters had to carry in the wedding cake, because the cake, not the waiters, is the focus of the sentence.

Often, the decision as to which voice is more appropriate can only be made by considering the larger context. Thus, you would say Very young babies prefer black-and-white images if you are writ­ing about how babies of various ages respond to colors; however, if your focus is on the colors themselves, it would be better to word this information as Black-and-white images are preferred by very young babies. That is, neither form is inherently better: The pur­pose and context of your writing should determine which voice is used.

When the doer can be inferred or is not of interest.

It would be better to say The cake wasn't served until two in the morning rather than The waiters didn't serve the cake until two in the morning, if (a) it can be inferred that the waiters did the serving and (b) it doesn't matter anyway, and using the active voice would put an inappropriate emphasis on the wrong part of the sentence. If there were some relevance to who served the cake, that would be different: For example, The bride herself served the cake, and the groom handed out the forks.

To avoid using the first-person-singular pronoun.

In academic writing, it is conventional to avoid saying I when referring to one's own work (although we is generally acceptable). The usual strategy is to word things in the passive voice: Thus, instead of I randomly assigned the subjects to each group, saying Subjects were randomly assigned to each group. Here again, the focus of the writing is on what is being done, not on who is doing it.

To avoid using all-male pronouns.

Many writers prefer not to refer to a generic individual of unspeci­fied sex exclusively as he. The problem is, there is no pronoun in English that can be used to indicate a single person of either sex, so more inventive strategies are needed. One approach is to word sentences in the passive voice to avoid the need for pronouns altogether. For example, instead of saying The average driver trades in his car every four years, you could say The average car is traded in every four years.

To deliberately deflect responsibility or conceal information.

In speech, the passive voice is often adopted by individuals wish­ing to minimize or evade personal responsibility for something. A reckless driver might admit, "Well, perhaps the car was being driven a bit fast," or a guilty roommate confess, "Those cookies your mother sent you all got eaten." Sometimes, writers with uneasy consciences will choose their words in a similar fashion. The best that can be said about this strategy is, you might pull it off convincingly. Other than that, in some cases it may be effectively applied to dialogue to impart an evasive tone to a character's words.

The passive voice is also used by individuals who want to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, but not necessarily the whole truth. This strategy is commonly employed by writers treading on politi­cally delicate ground, as it allows information to be presented in a way that cannot be accused of being inaccurate, but is incomplete or intentionally ambiguous. Saying It has been alleged that Mr Brandon knew about the takeover months in advance is not the same as saying Ms Reisman has alleged that Mr Brandon knew about the takeover months in advance. That is, ambiguity in writ­ing is not always the result of carelessness or inattention; sometimes it is quite deliberate. Readers often see through the evasiveness easily, so be aware that this strategy may backfire.

To vary sentence structure.

A final legitimate use of the passive voice is for variety in your writing style: using it simply to avoid monotony. Wording every sentence the same way makes for tedious reading, so if you find that you are phrasing every sentence in the active voice, you might consider switching the occasional one to the passive. Of course, do so only in cases where the passive would not raise problems of awkwardness or ambiguity.

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