Active vs. Passive Voice

While active voice creates direct, dynamic sentences that emphasize the subject’s action, passive voice shifts focus to the object, often making statements more formal or indirect. Understanding when to use each can help improve your writing style, making it more effective for different contexts. Lets explore some examples!
Active voice:

The teacher explained the lesson clearly.

She baked a delicious chocolate cake.

The company launched a new product last week.

Within active voice, the subject performs the action, making the sentence more direct and engaging.

Passive voice:

The lesson was explained clearly by the teacher.

A delicious chocolate cake was baked by her.

A new product was launched by the company last week.

Within passive voice, the focus shifts to the object, which can make the sentence more formal or indirect.

Both active voice and passive voice are important in writing, but active voice is generally considered more effective for most types of writing. Active voice tends to be clearer, more direct, and easier for readers to understand, making it ideal for most communication, especially in academic, business, and creative writing. It keeps the focus on the subject and the action, which helps engage the reader.
However, passive voice can be useful when the focus needs to shift to the action or object rather than the subject, or when the subject is unknown or irrelevant. For example, in scientific writing, passive voice is often used to emphasize the process or results rather than the researcher.
Ultimately, active voice is typically preferred for its clarity and impact, while passive voice is valuable when a more formal tone or different emphasis is needed.