Transcript Active and Passive Voice

Grammar
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Active Voice
And
Passive Voice
Active and Passive Voice
• VOICE indicates if the subject acts or is being acted upon.
• ACTIVE VOICE: John wrote the letter.
– John is the subject and he is doing the action (acting).
• PASSIVE VOICE: The letter was written by John.
– The letter is the subject and it is having an action done to it
(acted upon).
Grammar
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Active and Passive Voice
When you use the ACTIVE VOICE, you achieve
greater precision when you answer who or
what performs each action.
Grammar
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Active and Passive Voice
• With PASSIVE VOICE there is always the
question of…
Who or what performed the action?
Grammar
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Active and Passive Voice
• A passive sentence can answer the who or
what question with a prepositional phrase:
The letter was written by John.
The prepositional phrase can be wordy and
identifies the actor late in the sentence.
Grammar
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Active and Passive Voice
To eliminate the passive voice:
• Find the passive voice: it typically has a form
of the verb “to be” (is, are, was, were, been,
being …) plus another verb.
The letter was written by John .
Grammar
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Active and Passive Voice
To eliminate the passive voice:
• Answer the question who or what does the
action.
The letter was written by John .
John ...
Grammar
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Active and Passive Voice
To eliminate the passive voice:
• Make the answer the subject of the verb.
The letter was written by John.
John wrote the letter
Grammar
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Active and Passive Voice
Put these sentences in Active Voice:
Many inventions were created by Edison.
Edison created many inventions.
The letter was mailed by Jennifer.
Jennifer mailed the letter.
The books were counted by the teachers.
The teachers counted the books.
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Active and Passive Voice
Put these sentences in Active Voice:
A new book is being published by the company.
The company is publishing a new book.
Jane was introduced to Mark by Carol.
Carol introduced Jane to Mark.
A prize is given to the winner by the judges.
The judges give a prize to the winner.
Grammar
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When to use Active and Passive
Voice
• Use the active voice whenever possible.
• Sentences with active verbs are less wordy and
more forceful.
• Use the passive voice to emphasize the receiver
of an action rather than the performer of the
action.
Why?
• Also use the passive voice when there
is no performer of the action or the
performer is unknown.
Distinguishing Between Active and
Passive Voice
• Turn to Exercise A on pages 218-219 in your
text.
• Rewrite each sentence in the opposite voice. If
the sentence is written in active voice, rewrite
it in passive voice. If it is written in passive
voice, rewrite it in active voice.
• Complete Exercise C on page 221.
Never shift between active and passive voice
within a sentence.
Can you recognizing shifting sentences?
• Beautiful birds were seen as she entered the garden.
• When Jack turned on the TV, a buzzing sound was
heard.
• John visited the Smithsonian Institute on his last trip
to Washington D.C.
• Molly was running late this morning and had to run
to get to her first class, where it was discovered that
the teacher had cancelled class.
• To earn money, Emily offered china-painting lessons
to wealthy young women.