Use your active voice!

When it comes to writing, voice refers to the form of the verb as it relates to its subject. As we have discussed previously, verb choice is important. The stronger the verb, the stronger the sentence. The strongest verbs are those written in the active voice. The active voice occurs when the subject of the sentence performs the action.

Example of active voice:
Julia dazzled onlookers at the dance contest.
Who did the dazzling? That's right - Linda did. See, we're not afraid to say it. Strong sentence.

Same sentence in passive voice:
Onlookers were dazzled by Julia at the dance contest.
Now the subject (onlookers) receives the action (being dazzled), making this sentence passive voice. See the difference?

When you use the passive voice, you rob your sentence of power. Passive voice sentence construction weakens strong verbs and causes awkward sentences. For marketers, active voice is especially important because active voice denotes action, and when you are writing for the consumer, you want the reader to take action. What better way to inspire action than by using active verbs in active voice?

Let's look at some more examples:

Passive voice:
The standard for writing was set by Shakespeare.
Yawn. Weak action.

Same sentence in active voice:
Shakespeare set the standard by which writers today are measured.
See how much better this is. Active. Who did it? Shakespeare did. What did he do? He changed the standards for all writers. Active.

In our next example, we'll see why passive voice can be so confusing to the reader.
When the Watergate hotel was bugged, democracy was undermined immeasurably.
Who did the bugging? This sentence doesn't specify, but we all know who was behind it -- that sneaky little Dick Nixon. Who undermined democracy? Again, this weak sentence dodges that issue by using passive voice. But we all know the answer to that, don't we. I thought so.