What are Active and Passive voice? Active and passive voice refers to whether the subject or the object in the sentence performs the action of the verb In active voice the subject performs the action of the verb In passive voice the object performs the action of the verb Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

The student presented the talk. Active Voice The subject performs the action of the verb Example: The student presented the talk. The subject The action of the verb Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

The article summarized the research Active Voice The subject performs the action of the verb Example: The article summarized the research The subject The action of the verb Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

The talk was presented by the student Passive Voice The object performs the action of the verb The talk was presented by the student The action of the verb The object Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

The research was summarized by the article Passive Voice The object performs the action of the verb Example: The research was summarized by the article The object The action of the verb Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

How do Active and Passive voice Differ? The examples just shown are the same in terms of what actually happens In both cases the student did the presenting In both cases the article did the summarizing So how are they different? Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

How do Active and Passive Voice Differ? Active voice is direct The subject directly acts on the object The tone is clear and immediate As if you throw a ball directly at a target The target gets all the force of the ball Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Active Voice Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

How do Active and Passive voice differ? Passive voice is indirect The subject is acted ON by the object The tone is roundabout As if you bounce a ball off a wall to hit a target The wall and the target both get some of the force of the ball So the impact is not as strong or clear Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Passive Voice Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Changing Passive to Active Voice-Example Here is a bad example of using passive voice in a psychology paper Depression has been researched by scientists for decades. There is no reason to use passive voice, it makes the sentence harder to follow. A preferred version uses active voice: Scientists have researched depression for decades. Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Changing Passive to Active Voice-Example 2 Here is a 2nd bad example of using passive voice in a psychology paper Surveys were handed out to participants by research assistants. This sentence makes the research process sound rather mysterious. A preferred version uses active voice: Research assistants handed surveys out to the participants. Created by Alice Frye, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell