In reading some guidelines on the MLA format, I ran across how to effectively write in active voice, or in passive voice. I've never really looked into the definitions of either. However, once I did I was able to clearly point out the difference. Here are two examples from Tina Blue in the online article Active vs. Passive Voice. Here is an example of the active voice; "With the money from her mother's life insurance Diane bought a new car and took a trip to Europe." Now, compare that to the passive voice, "With the money from her mother's life insurance a new car was bought and a trip to Europe was taken by Diane." The passive voice just sounds way to complicated, and backwards. Tina says, "In the preceding examples, which are in the active voice, the agent of the action is the subject of the sentence. But in the next set of examples, which are in the passive voice, the receiver of the action is the subject of the sentence."
According to article, you should try to write in the active voice 95% of the time. Tina Blue says, "In fact, even that may be too generous. No passive voice verb should be allowed to stand unless it can justify itself. In other words, every time you use a passive verb, ask yourself why you are using a passive construction there. If you don't have a good reason for it, then rewrite the sentence to use the active voice." Read more from Tina Blue HERE.
Now I don't feel like this anymore:
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