Improving written English: how to understand when to use a passive voice

One of the most frequently used tips on improving written English on the Internet is: “Do not use a passive voice”. This is written in various blogs, such constructions in 100% of cases underline many tools for checking grammar. In such a situation, the general rejection of the passive voice is quite difficult not to follow this advice.

In fact, the passive voice in the English language is not a mistake, and in some cases its use is vice versa. I found some interesting material on how to understand when to use such language constructs, and prepared its adapted translation.
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Introduction: Subject and Supplement

The roots of all the problems of the passive voice go to the difference between the additions and the subjects in the proposal. And this difference is not always able to catch even native speakers.

To learn how to distinguish these terms of a sentence, one needs to understand the difference between them. The basic rule is: the subject is the object or person who performs the action, and the addition is the object or person to whom the action applies

Example:

John baked cookies.

Here the subject is John, who performed the action - baked the cookies. The word “cookies” will be an addition, since an action has been committed against it.

There is a classical English sentence construction scheme called SVO - here S is the subject (subject) that performs the action, V is the verb (verb) and O is the object (object). When using it, you will receive an active voice.

With a passive voice, the sentence structure changes, and the verb begins to relate not to the subject, but to the addition.

Example:

The burglar was chased by the police.

In this sentence, the word “burglar” is an addition, followed by a verb with the preposition by, and only then is the subject “police” located.

Hint : a preposition by with a verb is a sign of a passive voice.

Is the use of a passive voice error?

Not really. There is nothing technically wrong with the use of a passive voice; the main complaints are related to style. English style guides are recommended to avoid a passive voice, because it complicates sentences, makes them more difficult to understand.

All this is true, but it is a complete rejection of the passive pledge always and everywhere - this is a mistake, since in some cases it is simply necessary to use it. That's when it's worth doing.

When to use passive voice

There are several situations where a passive voice will be better than an active one. Consider them in more detail.

1. We do not know who performs the action.

If the “actor”, that is, someone or something that commits an action, is unknown to us or it is impossible to name this person or object for some reason, then the passive voice will work fine.

The wheel was invented around 3500 BC (We don’t know exactly who invented the wheel 3.5 thousand years before our era.)

2. Actor is not as important as the action itself.

This is often found, for example, in scientific texts, when it is the action that matters, and not who performed it.

The mix was heated to 200 ° F for 20 minutes to trigger the reaction.

This sentence could have been written as “We heated the solution to 200 ° F for 20 minutes to trigger the reaction”, but this would not have made much sense. If we have an article with a description of the experiment in the first person, then it is clear that the mix was warmed up by its participants. The rephrased sentence itself has not become shorter, it has not become easier to read. At the same time, readers of scientific articles by default know that usually the story is about their own works. Thus, the most important thing in our proposal is an action, not an indication of the one who commits it.

3. The action object is the main theme of the sentence.

Often the most important information is located at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. To further highlight such important places, you can use the passive voice.

Printing press, one of the most important inventions in human history, created by Johannes Gutenberg.

Here the addition of “printing press” is the main theme of the proposal, because it was he who became the greatest invention in the history of mankind, and the passive voice helps to highlight this fact.

Conclusion

Passive voice is not a grammatical mistake. This is exactly the same language tool as many others, and you just need to know when and how to use it in practice. If you just need to describe something, you do not want to convey any additional meanings and hidden ideas - it is better to simply use the standard SVO scheme with an active voice.

If you are writing a more complex text, such as a scientific article or even a stand-up presentation script, then a passive voice will help to focus on important ideas.