Vampire Verbs
How to look for pesky, passive verbs in your own writing.
Verbs might be the single most important item found in your sentences. The two main classifications for verbs are Passive and Active. This article divides the classes and shows their differences.
This section highlights the use of Active verbs, those most important to general writing.
Active Verbs (Writing In Active Voice):
This is the method we are encouraged to write with. Passive writing drains your creative flare, it masks action with words. Passive voice sucks the ferocity of your writing out and leaves nothing, but wordy sentences. Writing in the active voice keeps your material simple, sharp, and immediate. It paints a clear picture for your reader and keeps them actively reading. There is a simple equation to follow when writing in active voice:
Subject + Verb + Direct Object
The best teacher is example, below these are a few sets of sentences. One written in passive voice and one in the active voice:
Passive:
"The donation was given to the charity by the Jones family."
Active:
"The Jones family gave the donation."
Passive:
"The winners were chosen by the judges."
Active:
"The judges chose the winners."
Passive:
"The final decision was discussed by the team."
Active:
"The team discussed the final decision."
Passive:
"The tests have been reanalyzed by the medical staff."
Active:
"The medical staff reanalyzed the tests."
Passive:
"The start button should be pushed down by the next person."
Active:
"The next person should push down the start button."
Passive:
"The car was driven by Monica."
Active:
"Monica drove the car."
Passive ( Writing in Passive Voice):
The Passive voice should be avoided as much as possible by creative writers. This form is acceptable among technical and scientific authors. For fiction authors, it adds words and creates needless material which your readers must endure. This can easily prove to be distracting and infuriating if the audience is eager to reach the outcome of the story.
Experienced authors often use small snippets of passive voice for a dramatic change. However, even then it will only be used sparingly. Until an author has achieved a satisfactory level in their writing, passive voice shouldn’t be used. The simple addition by an unknowledgeable author can inadvertently lead to paragraphs or even pages of passive voice.
Conclusion:
In articles and instructional guides, locating the passive and active voices are simple. However many newer writers fall beneath a false sense of confidence. They believe their own passive and active sentences will be as simple to find as the ones used here.
When you’re in the middle of a 80,000 word novel, the task becomes much harder. Passive voice often precedes any variation of, "to be." When editing personal material, look for this construction. Most likely you will find a passive verb phrase near by.
©2001 Laura Wright. All rights reserved.