Language Center Program, Writing Tips

Volunteer State Community College | Division of Humanities

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A passive sentence is formed when the sentence verb consists of a form of the verb "to be" (i.e., is, are, was, were, am, been)and a past tense verb. In a passive sentence, the grammatical subject of the sentence is NOT the one who performs the action of the sentence. For example, the following are all passive sentences:

Passive sentences are not "bad" sentences; they are a stylistic choice. Indeed, there are times when the passive sentence is preferable to the active sentence. For example, if you want to avoid identifying the doer of the action and/or emphasize the action rather than the doer, the passive voice is the appropriate choice. Politicians often use the passive voice when relaying unpleasant news to constituents (e.g., Taxes were raised again this year), and scientists often use the passive voice in lab reports and other documents (e.g., A control group was chosen from the student population). However, be sure if you use passive sentences that you do so consciously - that is, you choose to use the passive voice for a specific reason. Writers sometimes use the passive voice unintentionally, which often results in prose that is vague and "bloated" (unnecessarily wordy).