This handout is also available for download in PDF format. We refer to a sentence as being in the "active voice" when the subject is performing the action of the sentence (the verb). A sentence is in ...

Writing in the active voice makes the meaning clear while keeping sentences from becoming complicated and wordy. Sentences using passive voice are not necessarily wrong, just less effective than ...

Voice is a complex issue, but it appears to mark a prominent object that the speaker chooses to make prominent. In English there are two voices: active and passive. The passive voice is the marked ...