Many writers choose to use the passive voice in their essays, yet the best writers rarely, if ever, use this technique.<\/p>\n
The passive voice puts the verb in the wrong place in the sentence, thereby removing the \u201caction.\u201d Subjects become acted upon<\/em> rather than performing<\/em> actions. Sentences with the passive voice\u00a0typically\u00a0include\u00a0verb phrases like \u201cwas\u201d or \u201chas been\u201d (e.g.: \u201cit was determined,\u201d \u201cthere has been\u201d).<\/p>\n Consider this example of the passive voice:<\/p>\n \u201cThe marathon was run despite my injury.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In this sentence, the verb (or action) is diminished because the writer says the marathon \u201cwas run.\u201d A better way of describing the same activity is to use the active voice, as illustrated in this example:<\/p>\n \u201cI ran the marathon despite my injury.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Below\u00a0are two more examples:<\/p>\n Passive:<\/strong> \u201cThe contract was awarded to us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n