- Setting The Tone Of Your Dissertation
- Common Dissertation Issues
- Meeting Dissertation Standards
- Canonical Organization Structure
- Referencing Research Work
- Referencing Alternatives And Side Notes
- Harvard Parenthetical Referencing
- Oxford Referencing
- The Use Of Latin In Citation Referencing
- The Baker’s Dozen – Citation Styles
- The Birth Of Fallacies
- Let The Audience Be The Judge
- Drawing Warranted Conclusions
- Writing Your Dissertation
Defining the Passive Voice
Passive voice effectively reverses the order of the active voice. The object acted upon is listed first, then the action it experiences, and then finally who or what did the action, if it is listed at all. The passive voice expressions can be easily recognized from their verb usage of the various forms of be, such as am, is, was, were, are, or been. It is important to note that not all usage of a be-verb creates a passive voice. Another passive voice indication may be the use of a “by” phrase after the verb. In these, the actor, if named at all, is the object of the prepositional phrase.
Creating the Passive Voice
Active voice may help to create clearer and more direct sentences, but writers sometimes find using an indirect phrase is more effective in a particular situation, thus choosing a passive voice over the active voice. Scientific writers typically use passive voice more frequently than writers in other environments. This makes particular sense when the actor is obvious, unimportant, or unknown. In other cases, the writer may deliberately postpone or completely avoid mentioning the actor at all. Using the passive voice can be more effective by highlighting the action and target, rather than the actor. Passive voice can also enable the writer to present information in a dispassionate manner, avoiding spurious pronouns or being forced to use proper nouns in writing his or her discussions on a given topic.
Converting Active to Passive
Converting active voice to passive is generally easier than converting passive voice to active. Start by considering who or what is taking the action expressed by the verb. Add “by” or “by the” to the beginning of this identification and set it aside for the moment. Then identify who or what is being acted upon (the target). Move this to the beginning of the sentence. Take the existing verb form and rewrite it to indicate the person or thing at the beginning of the sentence is being acted upon “by the” actor you set aside at the beginning of this conversion. Finally, place the actor phrase from earlier at the end of the sentence. The sentence should then be reviewed for clarity and appropriate verb structure.
