1. Passive Voice in Verbs
Grade 8 | Passive Voice in Verbs

2. What do you Notice? “Mistakes were clearly made…”
– Chris Christie, New Jersey Governor
"Over 5.5 million feet of boom has been laid across the water to block and absorb the approaching oil.”
– President Obama, BP oil spill speech
“Mistakes were made, self-serving lies were told to escape blame, thuggish intimidation was deployed by political staffers against career professionals to keep them quiet and in their place, and friendlies in the media were used to set up rivals, make bosses look good and slam opponents.”
– Ed Rogers, political writer
Grade 8 | Passive Voice in Verbs

3. Invitation to Compare and Contrast
How does the meaning change when verbs are Active versus Passive?
“Mistakes were made, self-serving lies were told to escape blame, thuggish intimidation was deployed by political staffers against career professionals to keep them quiet and in their place, and friendlies in the media were used to set up rivals, make bosses look good and slam opponents.” (Passive)
We made mistakes. We told self-serving lies to escape blame, Political staffers deployed thuggish intimidation against career professionals to keep them quiet and in their place. They capitalized on media friendlies to set up rivals, make bosses look good, and slam opponents. (Active)
Grade 8 | Passive Voice in Verbs

4. Invitation to Revise
Identify the passive voice verb in each sentence. Then rewrite
the sentences, changing verbs to active voice.
1. The honey bees were kept in a humidified chamber at room temperature overnight.
2. The solution was heated to 90 degrees C for approximately 30 minutes and then allowed to cool.
3. A structure for nucleic acid has already been proposed by Pauling and Corey.
Grade 8 | Passive Voice in Verbs

5. Invitation to Edit What’s wrong?
Over 5.5 million feet of boom has been laid across the water to block and
absorb the approaching oil.
Over 5.5 million foot of boom has been laid across the water to block and
Over 5.5 million feet of boom has been lied across the water to block and
Over 5.5 million feet of boom has been laid across the water to block, and
Over 5.5 million feet of boom has been laid acrost the water to block and
Grade 8 | Passive Voice in Verbs

6. Invitation to Write
Change the following passage from passive voice to active voice. Add two or three more sentences using active verbs to finish the passage. Dishes were not done, clothes were not folded, and the bed was not made. (Finish the passage.)
Grade 8 | Passive Voice in Verbs