“The habitual use of the active voice,” Strunk advises, “makes for forcible writing.” So often writers sweat over and darken pages with passive writing. They play with prepositions and accent with too many adjectives. In every book I read on writing, whether it’s Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style or Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, active writing awakens my senses, and my mind’s eye sees more magnified images.
Now, here are a few very simple examples…
1. Passive form: The house was painted by the men.
Active form: The men painted the house.
2. Passive form: The house was shaken by the thunder.
Active form: The thunder shook the house.
That is just the start. Below is a good way to remember if you are writing in active voice.
“Reduced to its essence, a good English sentence is a statement that an agent (the subject of the sentence) performed an action (the verb) upon something (the object).” - John Ciardi, excerpt from A Writer’s Coach, by Jack Hart
