{ Passive Voice About as good for your writing as passive aggressive behavior will be for your relationships. source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Discuss: What do you think PASSIVE VOICE is? Why might we need to talk about it now?

  A passive construction occurs when you make the object of an action into the subject of a sentence. Active: Why did the chicken cross the road? Passive: Why was the road crossed by the chicken?

Look for a form of "to be" (is, are, am, was, were, has been, have been, had been, will be, will have been, being) followed by a past participle.   The past participle is a form of the verb that typically, but not always, ends in "-ed." Some exceptions to the "-ed" rule are words like "paid" (not "payed") and "driven." (not "drived"). For example:   The nation has been damaged by the totalitarian theocracy.   The totalitarian theocracy damaged the city. Spotting Passive Constructions

Discuss: Make these passive sentences active. You may need to add information to the sentence. 1. Discuss: Make these passive sentences active. You may need to add information to the sentence. 1. Unwomen were marginalized. 2. African Americans were discriminated against. 3. Women were not treated as equals.

  The primary reason why your instructors frown on the passive voice is that they often have to guess what you mean.   Like many passive constructions, this sentence lacks explicit reference to the actor—it doesn't tell the reader who or what took Offred’s passport. The active voice clarifies things:   When her passport was taken, Offred had to escape quickly.   After border guards took Offred’s passport, she had to escape quickly. Why do we care about Passive Voice?

  Compare the following two examples to see if you agree.   (passive) A new system of laws controlling reproduction was set up. (By whom?)   (active) The Republic of Gilead set up a new system of laws controlling reproduction. Avoid Passive voice to assure you’ve specified who or what is doing the action in your sentence.

  Here are a few instances when the passive voice is quite useful:   1. To emphasize an object. Take a look at this example:   100 votes are required to pass the bill.   This passive sentence emphasizes the number of votes required. An active version of the sentence ("The bill requires 100 votes to pass") would put the emphasis on the bill, which may be less dramatic. Sometimes the passive voice is the best choice.

  2. To de-emphasize an unknown subject/actor.   Over 120 different contaminants have been dumped into the river.   If you don't know who the actor is—in this case, if you don't actually know who dumped all of those contaminants in the river—then you may need to write in the passive.   But remember, if you do know the actor, and if the clarity and meaning of your writing would benefit from indicating him/her/it/them, then use an active construction.

  3. If your readers don't need to know who's responsible for the action.   Here's where your choice can be difficult; some instances are less clear than others. Try to put yourself in your reader's position to anticipate how he/she will react to the way you have phrased your thoughts. Here are two examples:   Baby Sophia was delivered at 3:30 a.m. yesterday.(passive) and   Dr. Susan Jones delivered baby Sophia at 3:30 a.m. yesterday. (active)

 LA + Passive Voice= Usually Bad   SS + Passive Voice = Sometimes Good  SS + Passive Voice = Sometimes Good Passive Voice: LA vs SS

1. Offred lost several months of her life as portrayed by the change of seasons. 2. After the Salvaging, the women are proved guilty. 3. The daughter’s absence indicates the lack of morality being provided. 4. Their views are pushed on the women. 5. The submissive role being expressed shows his misogyny. Find the passive construction and revise.

 In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the female characters are portrayed with little to no depth, whose entire purpose is to invoke an emotion or action from a male character; thus reflecting the standing of women at the time Mary Shelley wrote the book.

1. In Macbeth, the gender roles were reversed. 2. The message being conveyed in this quote is that Lady Macbeth will do anything for power. 3. Imagery of hands is also used to show that Lady Macbeth seeks to rid herself of guilt. 4. The part of him full of guilt is shown when he hallucinates Banquo’s ghost. 5. From the early scenes, blood imagery is shown to the reader. 6. At the beginning of Macbeth, deception is used to gain the trust of King Duncan. 7. The decisions Lady Macbeth and her husband make often are lamented.