Active or Passive? What is it?

"Passive voice should be avoided." seems to be the current advice going around a myriad writers' circles on the Internet. It's not bad advice, but the difficult part is that many people don't really understand what constitutes the passive voice. What is it, exactly, that makes writing active or passive? Some say it is the mere presence of a form of the verb "to be" which renders a sentence passive. They're wrong. Let me explain.

Lately, in at least four different writing lists, I have encountered writers who say they are trying to remove all instances of "to be" plus words ending in "ing" from their writing. They have been advised that their writing is passive and these culprits must be weeded out. The only problem with the advice is that this is not what makes writing passive.

Any time the subject of the sentence is performing the action, the voice is active. The subject is active, even if he is doing something, or was going somewhere. If she does something or went somewhere, it's active voice. Look at this example:

Bob was cooking supper when a tree fell through his window.

See? Bob, who is the subject of the main clause, is active. He was doing something. He hadn't finished cooking; he was still at the stove when the tree shattered the window. "Was cooking" implies that this was ongoing at the time of the next incident.

Passive voice happens when the subject is being acted on. Or, in other words, is being passive. Here we go with another sample:

Bob was hit when the tree fell through the window.

Notice that Bob himself did nothing. He was on the receiving end of the action, so you have a passive subject, and passive voice. It is this that you shouldn't overuse in your writing. Which brings me to my next point.
Sometimes, passive voice is necessary for the right effect, and if that's the case, USE IT. In my own current novel-under-construction, I use this sentence:

Anyria was dragged screaming from the cottage.

I could have said: "The soldiers dragged the screaming Anyria from the cottage.", and used the active voice, but I want readers to focus on Anyria and her helplessness, not on the soldiers. In my opinion, the first has more impact as readers feel for her. The second sample draws reader attention to the soldiers, and they're not as important at the moment.

Passive voice is also rampant in government, news reporting, business and the court room. You see things like "It has been brought to my attention...", or "I was told...", or "The meeting was held...", or better yet "The victim was shot." Not a single person did anything in any of those samples. It's wonderful for avoiding charges of libel and slander.

However, like many other things in our writing, it should never be overdone. Anything done to extremes weakens your writing, whether you write fiction, non-fiction or even poetry. Find the balance that works for you and if the passive voice is called for, don't be afraid of it. It shouldn't be avoided forever.

© 2000 C.E. Barrett