When to Use Passive Voice, And How to Fix It When You Shouldn’t

Don’t be a koala in your writing

Photo by Holger Link on Unsplash

Procrastination is my number one demon as a writer. Demon number two? T̵o̵o̵ ̵o̵f̵t̵e̵n̵,̵ ̵m̵y̵ ̵b̵l̵o̵g̵s̵ ̵a̵r̵e̵ ̵w̵r̵i̵t̵t̵e̵n̵ ̵i̵n̵ ̵t̵h̵e̵ ̵p̵a̵s̵s̵i̵v̵e̵ ̵v̵o̵i̵c̵e̵.̵ Too often, I write my blogs in the passive voice. It’s something I’m trying to fix.

If you, like me, have a bit of a passive voice problem (or if you’re wondering what the big deal is), don’t worry. Once you know what to spot, it’s pretty easy to fix. And your writing will be all the better for it.

Let’s take a look at what the passive voice is, why it’s (sometimes) a problem, and how to use the active voice for simpler, cleaner, more powerful copywriting.

So What Is the Passive Voice?

Time for a quick grammar recap. In English, most sentences follow the subject + verb + object formula.

• Subject = the main focus of the sentence, usually the “doer” of the action
• Verb = the action, the thing that’s happening
• Object = the thing or person that the action is happening to

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• Delilah (S) ate (V) the sandwich (O).
• The dog (S) chases (V) the cat (O).
• On Wednesdays, we (S) wear (V) pink (O).

Sentences that follow the SVO structure are written in the “active voice.” It makes a sentence snappier, clearer, and easier to read.

Now, let’s look at the same sentences written in the “passive voice.” This is when the person or thing being acted on actually comes before the verb. It becomes the subject, the focus of the sentence. The “doer” of the verb comes after or is left out of the sentence altogether. Sentences become vaguer, and often, longer.

• The sandwich was eaten by Delilah. Or: The sandwich was eaten. (If you either don’t know or don’t care who did the eating.)
• The cat was chased by the dog.
• On Wednesdays, pink is worn by us.

As you can see, “The sandwich was eaten by Delilah” is grammatically correct and perfectly fine. So why all the hate?

Why Copywriters Avoid The Passive Voice

For the most part, the passive voice makes your writing vaguer. It removes the punch and power of your words, which makes your writing less convincing. Remember, a confused mind always says no.

Laura Belgray, the copywriting expert behind the Talking Shrimp, explains that writers naturally use the passive voice a lot. The reason?

“Because it’s easier. It assigns less responsibility to whoever or whatever is doing the action. And that makes it less powerful.”

A lot of us have been trained all of our lives to never be too forceful with our words, so we take the edge off our writing. Copywriters don’t do this. Because the “edge” is what convinces your reader to nod along, take action, buy the thing.

However, there are some cases where the active voice will sound distracting or jarring. So use your judgment, it’s not a hard and fast rule.

Consider How Using The Active Voice Can Change the Meaning Of Your Writing

Imagine a headline that reads, “Five protesters were shot in downtown Chicago.” It’s somewhat vague, abstract, and dare I say it, passive. There’s no aggressor.

Adding “by the police” changes the tone and focus entirely. Now we have a “doer,” in the picture. But it’s still passive. Rewrite this headline in the active voice, “The police shot five protesters in downtown Chicago,” and the focus changes from the protesters to the actions of the police. Now we’re having a conversation about police brutality.

None of these sentences are “wrong,” but they all change the tone and focus of the writing. Think about what you want to foreground in your writing, then choose the sentence formulation that works best. In most cases, especially in copywriting, that’s the active voice.

How to Spot the Passive Voice in Your Writing

Use a free tool like Hemingway Editor or Grammarly. These are quick and easy, and have other handy features to improve overall readability too.

If you want to auto-edit, scan your writing for an auxiliary verb in the form of “to be,” (am, are, is, was, were). If it’s next to another verb in the past tense, (touched, broken, fixed), it could indicate the passive voice. Once you’ve spotted the passive voice, all you need to do is re-jig the sentence to make it follow a subject + verb + object formula. Like so:

• Passive: The butterfly’s wings were torn (“to be” + past participle verb) by the branches.
• Active: The branches (subject) tore (verb) the butterfly’s wings (object).
• Passive: Your blogs should always be written (“to be” + past participle verb) clearly.
• Active: You (subject) should always write (verb) your blogs (object) clearly.

Note: Most of your sentences won’t be as simple as “Delilah ate the sandwich.” But forget about the adverbs, prepositional phrases, and so on for now. Just get the SVO in order, and voila, you’ve got the active voice.

Finally, is it Ever OK to Write in the Passive Voice?

Absolutely! In fact, there are some situations where it’s completely called for. Think school essays, scientific papers, newspaper reports. You’ll see lots of passive voice there.

There are three main reasons you’d use the passive voice:

1. When you want to draw attention to the thing or person being acted upon.

• The Queen was crowned in 1936. (The focus of the sentence is the coronation. Who did the crowning? In this case, it’s completely irrelevant.)

2. When the doer, the object of the action is unknown or unimportant.

• The house was robbed on Friday 13th. (The identity of the burglar isn’t yet known.)
• Each test tube was filled with 50ml of the vaccine. (Nobody cares that Gayle the lab technician filled the tubes. Sorry, Gayle.)

3. When you’re trying to be polite.

• Freya broke Grandma’s favorite plate.

But if Grandma sees the shards on the floor and asks what happened, I’d have to be a real jerk to phrase it like that. Instead, I’d say something like “The plate got smashed.” The active voice would assign blame, the passive voice takes the edge off, and hopefully saves Freya’s skin.

Remember, the passive voice is not wrong, it’s just a matter of context and style. You don’t need to fear it, just be clear on how to spot it, how to fix it, and how it changes your work.