Day 28: Use the active voice.

First, a very brief description of the active voice. In the active voice, the subject performs an action on something else.

Active voice: “John threw the ball.”
Passive voice: “The ball was thrown by John.”

Why should you use the active voice?

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  1. The grammatical subject will more likely be the rhetorical subject. In the passive voice, the grammatical subject is never the rhetorical subject.
  2. The sentence will be more direct and economical.
  3. The sentence will provide information in the order that people expect.
  4. The sentence will be easier to understand.
  5. The sentence will be more lively and engaging for the reader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few more examples of active and passive voice.

Active: “Susan baked a pie.”
Passive: “The pie was baked by Susan.”

Active: “John discovered a process for extracting gold.”
Passive: “A process for extracting gold was discovered by John.”

Active: “The billing and expense reports prepared by our accountant gave us a bleak outlook.”
Passive: “The bleak outlook was given to us by the billing and expense reports prepared by our accountant.”

Day 29: Avoid starting sentences with it.

The word it is often used as the subject of a sentence when the real subject, the rhetorical subject, is somewhere later in the sentence. The word it serves as a placeholder because something needs to be in the subject position. Consider this sentence.

“It’s understandable that you are bored.”

In this case, the word “it” means “that you are bored.” By itself, the word “it” has no meaning; it is only a placeholder. To write more effectively, put the real subject in the subject’s place, not “it.”

The sample sentence can be revised as

“That you are bored is understandable.”

Ok, so this revised sentence is a bit awkward. Figure out who is doing the action in the sentence, i.e., find the rhetorical subject, which may or may not be mentioned in the sentence. In this case, the person doing the action is “I,” “We,” or something like that. Thus, you can revise the sentence to read as follows.

“I can understand why you are bored.”

Note: The only time starting with it is acceptable is when it refers to something that you have just mentioned. For example: “I saw the ball. It was on the table.”