AVOIDING THE PASSIVE VOICE

The passive voice, though an excellent way to add variety to your writing,
can sometimes work against clarity and cause confusion for a reader. The
passive voice creates vagueness or ambiguity about the subject or the
action
of a sentence. For example, in the sentence “The cookie jar has been
broken,” we have no idea who did the breaking. Compare that to “I broke
your cookie jar.” The speaker in the second sentence admits the action.
If you cannot easily find the noun or pronoun that represents the “do-er” of
the action expressed in a sentence’s predicate, it could be a passive voice
sentence.
Passive Voice: Taxes were raised.
Active Voice: The city council raised taxes.
Passive Voice: The cake was eaten.
Active Voice: Pierre ate the cake. AVOIDING THE PASSIVE VOICE
The passive voice, though an excellent way to add variety to your writing,
can sometimes work against clarity and cause confusion for a reader. The
passive voice creates vagueness or ambiguity about the subject or the
action
of a sentence. For example, in the sentence “The cookie jar has been
broken,” we have no idea who did the breaking. Compare that to “I broke
your cookie jar.” The speaker in the second sentence admits the action.
If you cannot easily find the noun or pronoun that represents the “do-er” of
the action expressed in a sentence’s predicate, it could be a passive voice
sentence.
Passive Voice: Taxes were raised.
Active Voice: The city council raised taxes.
Passive Voice: The cake was eaten.
Active Voice: Pierre ate the cake.