Active Versus Passive Voice

When you read your journal, you want to hear yourself speaking and not some narrator without a face or point of view. You want to feel part of the action instead of being some passive bystander. How can you make your journal more personal? Use the active voice!

In the passive voice, you're not really sure who commits the action. You only know the receiver of the action. An example:
“The car was hurled against the building.”
Something dramatic happened to the car and a building, but we have no idea how or why. Boring sentence.
Active voice:
“The tornado hurled the car against the building.”
Tells how car and building met. We can visualize what happened. Tornado caused the action.

Passive voice often uses forms of the verb “to be," is, am, are, was, were, be, being, become, becoming, also appear, seems, seems like, looks like.

Instead, use stronger and more active verbs.

Another example-
“Regina was saddened by the news.”
Instead “The news saddened Regina.”

Or “Tony was injured by the falling rock.”
Instead, “The falling rock injured Tony.” ◦

Active Versus Passive Voice