2.1.3.2. Passive Voice

● Active Voice: The subject performs the action (e.g., The student wrote the essay.). It is generally preferred for clarity and directness.

● Passive Voice: The action is performed on the subject (e.g., The essay was written by the student.). Use it when the doer of the action is unknown, unimportant, or when you want to emphasize the action itself.

The Active and Passive Voice are two different ways of constructing sentences. In the Active Voice, the subject of the sentence is doing the action. For example, in 'The student wrote the essay,' 'the student' is the subject who performs the action of writing. This form is preferred in most cases because it is clearer and more direct.

On the other hand, in the Passive Voice, the focus shifts to the action and the subject receives the action. For example, in 'The essay was written by the student,' the focus here is on the essay, which is receiving the action. Passive Voice is particularly useful when the doer of the action is not known or is not important, or when the emphasis needs to be on the action itself rather than who performed it.

Think about how you might tell a story. If you say 'The dog chased the ball,' it's clear who is doing what (the dog is active). However, if you say 'The ball was chased by the dog,' the focus is on the ball and what happened to it (the ball being chased), which can be useful if the ball's experience is more important than what the dog did.

Use it when the doer of the action is unknown, unimportant, or when you want to emphasize the action itself.

The Passive Voice can be particularly useful in specific contexts. First, when the person or thing doing the action is unknown, you might want to use Passive Voice. For instance, if a painting is damaged but it isn't known who did it, you might say 'The painting was damaged.'

Second, if the doer is unimportant, you might also choose Passive Voice. For example, in a statement like 'The window was broken,' the focus is on the window, and it doesn't matter who broke it.

Lastly, if you want to emphasize the action rather than the doer, Passive Voice is suitable. For example, saying 'The award was given' emphasizes the award's receiving rather than who gave it. This can be critical in formal writing or when reporting events.

Imagine you hear about an event in which a trophy was awarded but no one mentions who awarded it. You could report it by saying 'The trophy was awarded for outstanding performance.' Here, your focus is on the trophy and the honor it represents, not on who gave it.

E.g., The essay was written by the student. This illustrates a situation where the action (writing) is emphasized over the doer (the student).

In the previous example, 'The essay was written by the student,' we see how the Passive Voice shifts attention. The action of writing is highlighted, which may be the crucial element to emphasize if discussing the essay's content rather than the student. This approach can shift reader interest or convey information more appropriately in various contexts like news reports, scholarly articles, or when addressing a broad audience.

For instance, if a famous novel was adapted into a film, one might say, 'The novel was adapted into a film.' Rather than focusing on who did the adapting, the statement highlights the adaptation itself, which may be of greater interest to the audience.

--