Defining the active voice - Emphasis

Defining the active voice Defining the active voice You might have heard its a good idea to favour the active voice in your writing – its generally tighter and more dynamic than using the passive voice. But what exactly do we mean by active and passive anyway? The active voice puts the doer of the action described (in grammar terms, the agent) first. This tends to sound natural and clear, and it leaves no information hidden. For example: The cat had stolen the dogs dinner. Here the doer (the cat) is stated before the action (had stolen). Now look at this sentence: The dogs dinner had been stolen by the cat. This is the passive voice: the action comes before the doer. In fact, the sentence would still make sense if you removed by the cat, which would leave everyone wondering who had stolen the poor dogs food. The passive voice can be used cynically to disguise who performed an action, which can produce a somewhat opaque and suspect piece of writing. And be careful not to use it habitually – doing so weighs down writing and makes it sound a bit bureaucratic and dull.