Passive Verbs in Plain English Style

Prefer active verbs.  Active verbs are essential to good writing.  Replacing passive verbs with active verbs makes your writing lively, direct and personal.  Active verbs will also cut between 20 to 30 per cent of wasted words.

To turn passive verbs into active verbs, either:

Put Who did it? first

Passive:    It was agreed by the committee…

Editing:    Who agreed?  The committee did.  Put this information first.

Active:    The committee agreed…

Cross out as much of the passive verb as you can

Passive:    The savings could be used to pay for a new photocopier.

Editing:    The savings could be used to pay for a new photocopier.

Active:    The savings could pay for a new photocopier.

An average of only one or two passive verbs in every four or five sentences is a sign of a competent and professional writer.  Replacing passive verbs with active verbs means your:

• style becomes more personal and less official
• style is simpler and less awkward
• readers get more information
• meaning becomes clearer and more precise
• sentences are shorter and more effective.

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This entry was posted on June 13th, 2010 and is filed under Plain English, Writing Style & Usage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.