How to Write Active vs Passive Voice

Active and passive voice are tools, not moral categories. Historians, economists, engineers, and literary critics all use both. The skill is choosing which voice puts the right actor in the subject slot so the reader can follow the claim.

What Is Active vs Passive Voice?

In active voice, the grammatical subject performs the action: The court dismissed the appeal. In passive voice, the subject receives the action: The appeal was dismissed. Neither is automatically more scholarly. Active voice is usually shorter and easier to parse. Passive voice is useful when the actor is unknown, unimportant, or less important than the result.

A third pattern shows up constantly in student drafts: dummy subjects such as It was found that or There was an increase. Those are not a third voice; they are padding that hides the real subject.

Before You Start

• Check the assignment sheet, style guide, or journal instructions for first-person and voice preferences.
• For each sentence, decide whether the reader needs to know who acted.
• Scan a draft for strings of was/were + past participle. Those are passive candidates, not automatic errors.
• Note the section you are writing. Methods, results, close reading, and literature review often want different defaults.
• Read one paragraph aloud. If you cannot hear who is doing the work, the voice is probably working against you.

Prefer Active Voice for Claims and Arguments

When you assert an interpretation, give the sentence a subject that can actually argue, decide, or show.

Example (humanities): Woolf uses free indirect discourse to collapse the distance between narrator and character.

Example (social science): We argue that turnout gaps widened after the 2013 voter-ID statute, not merely after demographic change.

Tip: "It can be argued that..." hides the arguer. If the arguer is you, say so; if it is a cited author, name them.

Use Passive Voice When the Actor Is Irrelevant

In methods writing, the person who ran the procedure often matters less than the procedure itself. Passive voice keeps the reader's eye on the object of study.

Example (STEM): Survey responses were collected between March and May 2024 using a stratified random sample.

Example (history): The archive was closed to researchers until 1998.

Tip: Passive is justified when naming the actor would add noise, not when you want to dodge responsibility for a weak claim.

Name the Real Agent

If a person, institution, text, or model did the work, put that agent first unless you have a reason not to.

Example: Congress passed the act in 1965.

Compare: The act was passed in 1965. The second version is acceptable if the date and the statute are the only things that matter. It is weaker if the political actor is the point of the paragraph.

Tip: Institutional actors—the court, the board, the estimator—are legitimate subjects. You do not need a human name in every sentence.

Mix Voices Inside a Paragraph—On Purpose

Switching voice mid-paragraph is fine when each sentence has a reason.

Example: Participants completed the task in 12 minutes on average. Completion times were recorded automatically. We then compared the two conditions using a paired t-test.

The first sentence is active because participants acted. The second is passive because the recording system is uninteresting. The third is active because we made the analytic choice.

Tip: Random switching looks like indecision. Planned switching looks like control.

Cut Dummy Subjects

Phrases such as It was found that, It is believed that, and There was an increase in bury the finding.

Example: Original: It was observed that error rates declined after training. Revised: Error rates declined after training.

Example: Original: There was a significant difference between the two groups. Revised: The treatment group scored 0.4 standard deviations higher than the control group.

Tip: If you can delete "it was found that" and the sentence still works, delete it.

Use Active Voice for Attribution

Citing previous work is cleaner in active voice. The scholar becomes the subject; the claim becomes the verb phrase.

Example: Said argues that Orientalism is a discourse of power, not a neutral description of the East.

Example: Card and Krueger find no employment drop after the New Jersey minimum-wage increase.

Tip: "It has been argued (Said, 1978)" is both passive and vague. Name the scholar.

Keep Subject and Verb Close

Long modifiers between subject and verb make either voice hard to read. Repair the sentence before you debate voice.

Example: Weak: The policy that the committee, after three hearings and a public comment period, adopted was later struck down. Better: After three hearings, the committee adopted a policy that the court later struck down.

Tip: If a comma pile-up sits between the subject and the main verb, the sentence is too heavy regardless of voice.

Match Voice to Section

A practical default that works across fields:

• Introduction / literature review: Active voice for authors and debates; passive for well-established background when the discoverer is not the point.
• Methods: Passive or first-person active, used consistently. Pick one house style and stay with it.
• Results: Active when the data do something (Scores increased); avoid was observed unless the observation process is itself the finding.
• Discussion: Active voice for your interpretations. Hedging belongs in the verb (suggests, is consistent with), not in a fog of dummy subjects.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Using passive voice to hide a lack of evidence (It is thought that... with no citation).
• Overusing we in a methods section until the paper reads like a diary rather than a protocol.
• Dangling modifiers: After reviewing the transcripts, the themes were clear (the themes did not review the transcripts).
• Switching voices inconsistently inside a single paragraph for no rhetorical reason.
• Assuming passive voice is "more academic" when it actually makes long arguments harder to follow.
• Padding results with it was found that instead of stating the result.

Pro Tips

• Read the abstract aloud; if it drags, convert the closing sentence to active voice.
• Check the journal or department's instructions for authors before banning or mandating we.
• Keep subject and verb close, especially in long sentences with dates and clauses.
• Reserve passive voice for unknown or irrelevant actors, not for dressing up a weak claim.
• Use active voice when attributing arguments to named scholars or institutions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it okay to use "I" or "we"?

Often yes. Many journals and departments now prefer we in methods and discussion so the researchers' actions are distinct from the phenomena under study. Check the local style guide. If first person is banned, you can still write active sentences with institutional or textual subjects (The model predicts..., The novel stages...).

When is passive voice actually better?

Use it when the actor is unknown, obvious, or a distraction: The manuscript was lost in 1922; Participants were assigned at random. Methods sections often prefer this pattern.

Does active voice make writing less objective?

No. Objectivity comes from evidence, design, and logic. Voice is a clarity choice. We excluded incomplete responses is more honest than Incomplete responses were excluded if you made the decision.

Should an abstract be active or passive?

Use a mix. Active voice for your main findings and contribution; passive voice for background when the established fact, not the original author, is the point.

Related Resources

• How to Write an Analytical Essay

• How to Write a Descriptive Essay

• How to Write Harvard Referencing

• How to Write In-Text Citations

• 50 Active vs Passive Voice Topics for Academic Writing

• Find Peer-Reviewed Sources with Sourcely

• Polish Your Writing with Revise AI