Grammar Stuff 1: Passive and Active Voice

Eighth-grade English wasn't much fun. What I remember most was the grammar. Mind-numbing repetition that seemed to take an eternity. Diagramming sentences and all that. My English teacher never yanked me out of the chair by my ear like one of my sixth-grade teachers did, but diagramming sentences might have been more painful.

Grammar is the art of making words work. Take passive and active voice. Yeah, yeah, I can picture your eyes glaze over now. But it's not that hard and you can master it pretty quickly.

Identifying active and passive voice

Here's an example of passive voice: The ball was hit by Daniel.

Here's active voice: Daniel hit the ball.

The second sentence is, in most cases, better. First, it has two fewer words, and the omitted words (was and by), didn't accomplish much anyway. Why keep them around leaching off the words that did the work?

Second, which sentence leads to a mental picture of someone hitting a ball? By economizing the words, you create more concise communication that people are more likely to read.

So how do I do it?
You can master active and passive voice by asking two simple questions:

1. Who is the actor in the sentence? If you can make the actor come first, you're probably okay. In the example Daniel is the actor. The ball is acted upon. Literally.
2. Does your sentence have the word was in front of the action verb?

If the actor comes first and you don't see a was in front of the verb, you're probably okay.

See, that wasn't so bad. Not as bad as being picked up by your ear.