Day 152: Maintain one voice in a sentence.

This specifically refers to the use of active and passive voice. In brief, this tip means use either the active or the passive voice in a sentence, not both. Consider this sentence.

“I wrote the weekly project status report, but it wasn’t delivered on time.”

This sentence begins in the active voice but concludes in the passive voice. By using only one voice, the sentence will be more direct and more effective for accomplishing your purpose. Two possible revisions are as follows.

“I wrote the weekly project status report, but I didn’t deliver it on time.” (active)
“The weekly project status report was written but not delivered on time.” (passive)

Determine which voice will best accomplish your purpose and use it for the entire sentence.