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Activate the passive voice

Ask, who’s doing the verb?

How can you identify and activate the passive voice?

Activate the passive voice
To write in the active voice, use the simple sentence structure.

Active voice

The active voice uses simple sentence structure:

Subject, verb, object.
Man bites dog.

Passive voice

Invert that simple sentence structure, and you’ve got the passive voice:

Object, verb, subject.
Dog is bitten by man.

Passive voice, agent deleted

Sometimes we drop the subject altogether:

Object, verb.
Dog is bitten.

Activate the passive voice

To activate the passive voice, remember: Every sentence needs a subject and a verb, and the subject should be doing the verb.

So find the verb:

bites

Figure out who’s doing the verb:

man

Put that person in front of the verb:

Man bites dog.

What words will resonate with your readers?

Jargon. Buzzwords. Acronyms. They’re things that make your reader go “huh?” And we need to get them out of our message.

Rev Up Readability — our clear-writing workshop starting June 20Learn how to translate the language of your organization into the language of your readers at Rev Up Readability — our clear-writing workshop starting June 20.

There, you’ll learn how to define terms the reader-friendly way (Hint: It’s not the way you learned in Journalism 101.) How to steal techniques from Warren Buffett to make complex technical information easier to understand — and more fun to read. Plus: you’ll boost social media reach and influence, media coverage and your organization’s authority.

Save up to $100 with our group discounts.

Register for Rev Up Readability — our clear-writing workshop starting June 20
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September 28, 2023

Reach Readers Online - Ann Wylie's web-writing workshop, starting Oct. 23

Save up to $100 with our group discounts.

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