Active passive

Active passive

• 1.
  Passive and Active
• 2.
  One of thefeatures of academic style is the use of passive grammar One reason we use it is because sometimes we want to emphasise an action and not the person doing the action For example: “the scientists performed the experiment” (active voice) can change to “the experiment was performed by the scientists” (passive voice) (because the experiment might be more important to us, and so it comes first) But remember, to write well, you need to use both the active (the usual way we write and speak) and the passive
• 3.
  Forming the passive ◦To form the passive grammatically, you need : The verb “to be” : am/is/are/was/were/been/being AND The past participle of a verb e.g. wanted, researched, driven, made, etc. Warning ! Grammar Alert ! Active Passive Somebody cleans this room This room is cleaned by somebody (“is” is the verb to be and “cleaned” is the past participle) The university organised the graduation ceremony The graduation ceremony was organised by the university The teacher has put the results on Canvas The results have been put on Canvas by the teacher The participants have undertaken a lot of research A lot of research has been undertaken by the participants
• 4.
  Do I needto know how to form it? • Depending on how confident you feel using it, you might not need to know how to make the passive. However, having an awareness of it, can ensure that you are writing accurately. • If you find grammar difficult or not interesting, then try and build up a range of passive phrases you can use. For example, common academic phrases such as : • Remember: in some subjects (and assignments) it is okay to more use active language, so check with your subject teacher if you are not sure. “It has been suggested…” / “It is believed that….” “It can be concluded that…” / “It can be seen that……” are all passive
• 5.
  Main reasons touse the passive • To emphasise the action not the person or thing e.g. “The key literature was written by R.D. Roberts” • When it is not important, obvious or not known who did the action e.g. “This lack of thorough procedures was observed during the clinical trial” • When we want to avoid plagiarism by paraphrasing, which means we change the words but keep the original ideas, and changing active to passive (or vice versa) can help us e.g. “Regulatory bodies control the use of drugs through regulation” = “Drug use is controlled and regulated by…….”
• 6.
  Practice The sentences beloware all active – try and convert them to passive: 1. Fire destroyed the collection of scientific materials (answer: “the collection of scientific materials was destroyed by fire”) 2. I have interviewed twenty-five patients for this study 3. The DNA gene coded the isolated enzymes during the trials 4. The committee will scrutinise the findings at a later date 5. Scientists classify that radon is an inert gas
• 7.
  Practice : PossibleAnswers 1. The collection of scientific materials was destroyed by fire 2. Twenty-five patients have been interviewed for this study [saying “who” did it is not necessary here] 3. The isolated enzymes were coded by the DNA gene during the trials 4. The findings will be scrutinised by a committee at a later date 5. Radon is classified as an inert gas
• 8.
  Using Passive orActive? Though using the passive voice can create an impersonal, objective tone in writing, too much can make writing sound awkward For example, “it was decided by the department that the findings were inconclusive” could be changed to “the department decided the findings were inconclusive” – so here the active sentence seems more natural Note that passive sentences are often longer than active ones, so if you need to reduce your word count, use more active sentences!
• 9.
  Extra Practice The linkson the Canvas page have more examples and further practice on using the passive in your writing