Passive Voice, Active Voice
In 1992, in the first writers group I attended, a fellow member said to me, “You use passive voice. A lot. I suggest you see if changing some of them to active voice will make this article more interesting and easier to read.”
Passive voice? Active voice? Those terms were vaguely familiar.
The kind writer must have seen the confusion I felt. She suggested I buy a copy of The Elements of Style. Authors Strunk and White had packed their small volume with suggestions for improving our writing.
I’ve attended many writers groups over the years. From time to time, we’ve all included passive voice when active voice would better serve our stories. Few of us were English teachers, grammarians, or editors. Thankfully, computer programs can now search our documents and highlight passive voice. And I appreciate a good grammar checker. Yet, as writers, it’s a bonus to us and a blessing to our readers when we brush up on some basics. This helps us understand more about the writing tools we use, the choices we can make, and why these choices matter.
Active voice and passive voice
Consider rule 14 in The Elements of Style: “Use the active voice.” It “is more direct and vigorous…. The habitual use of the active voice…makes for forcible writing.”[1]
In contrast, passive voice is “less direct, less bold, and less concise.”[2]
The Chicago Manual of Style is another go-to reference for many writers and editors. It states: “Voice shows whether the subject acts (active voice) or is acted on (passive voice)—that is, whether the subject performs or receives the action of the verb.”[3]
Sometimes passive voice is the better choice
Strunk and White didn’t suggest removing all traces of passive voice from our writing, because it is “frequently convenient and sometimes necessary.”[4]
Reasons to choose passive construction include:
- We don’t know who took the action.
As family history writers, we’re writing non-fiction. If we don’t know who or what performed the action of the verb, it’s better to use the passive voice than to make something up.
- We have included a direct quote that contains passive voice.
Sometimes I get carried away, changing passive voice to active voice until I notice I’m “fixing” a direct quote. In those cases, I undo my edits. Nevertheless, sometimes I can identify the agent of action. If that information is important to the story, I may include it in my nearby narrative, a footnote, or within the direct quote itself by using square brackets.
- We don’t want our readers to know who or what performed the action.
Perhaps we are providing preliminary information and building up to a reveal, twist, or surprise later in the story. Maybe including the person or thing doing the action would be accurate but tangential to the story and misdirect the reader’s focus.
Sometimes active voice is the better choice
Reasons to choose active voice include:
- We know who or what caused the action.
Sometimes our research provides the missing identity of the person or thing doing the action.
- We want the reader to find our writing easy to read, understand, and remember.
Active voice might help bring the subjects of our family stories alive for our readers who are kinfolk and historians.
- We are cutting words from our stories to meet a word count or space limitation.
Active voice sentences are normally shorter.
Two common passive voice quagmires and tips on how to climb out of them
I don’t intend this article to be a complete treatment of active and passive verbs. In my writing and that of other writer group members, I’ve noticed two common passive voice constructions that are easily changed to active voice.
Side note: When reading the table below, remember the “to be” verbs: be, am, is, are, was, were, being (present participle), been (past participle).[5]
| Quagmire #1 Passive sentence formed when the receiver of action becomes the subject of the sentence | ||||
| Passive Voice | Tip | Active Voice | ||
| Sentence construction: (receiver of action) + (“to be” verb + verb) + (agent of action) Example: “In 1778, James was shipped to the colonies to fight the rebels.” | Ask yourself, “Who shipped James to the colonies?” Sometimes the person or thing performing the action is unknown. Although I hadn’t included the agent of action in my first draft, in this instance, I knew who shipped James out. | Sentence construction: (agent of action) + verb + (receiver of action) Example: “In 1778, the British shipped James to the colonies to fight the rebels.” | ||
| Quagmire #2 Passive sentence formed using the preposition “by” | ||||
| Passive voice | Tip | Active Voice | ||
| Sentence construction: (receiver of action) + (“to be verb” + verb) + “by” + (agent of action) Example: “The birth information was provided by Peter’s father.” | Search for verb + “by” Ask yourself, “Who provided the records?” | Sentence construction: (agent of action) + verb + (receiver of action) Example: “Peter’s father provided the birth information.” | ||
Active voice—passive voice. The choice is yours to make.
- Do you feel passive voice makes your writing blah, turgid, boring, long, or weak?
- How have you used passive voice effectively in your written family stories and histories?
- What are your favorite grammar checkers?
- What reference books, websites, blogs, apps, podcasts, or other resources do you turn to learn more about the craft of writing?
[1] William Strunk Jr and E. B. White, The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition (Pearson Education, Inc., 2000, 1979), p. 18. Earlier editions 1972, 1959 (Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.). 1935 (Oliver Strunk).
[2] The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition, p. 18.
[3] The Chicago Manual of Style,18th edition, 5.122, “Active and Passive Voice,” (The University of Chicago Press, 2024), p. 276.
[4] The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition, p. 18.
[5] Craig Shrives, “Verb ‘To Be’ in English,” Grammar-Monster (https://www.grammar-monster.com/irregular_verbs/verb-to-be-in-English.html : accessed 19 Aug 2026).
This is a great article! I learned a thing or two from the examples you provided. Thanks!