Hi I'm Joe.
And today we're looking at how to use passive voice in academic writing.
Passive voice can be used in most contexts.
It's very common when you read the news.
Passive voice is best compared to active voice.
In active voice,
the subject of the sentence is also the agent of the verb,
the person or thing that is doing something. In the passive voice,
the focus moves away from the agent and places
emphasis on the object.
Let's take a look at this fictitious news story in an action
packed night for the Victorian police.
The most expensive diamond in history was stolen and recovered
in under 12 hours.
Someone stole a diamond from a jewellery store. Last night,
police arrested the thief in the early hours of the morning.
Mine workers had originally discovered the diamond in an Australian
mine in 1976.
Can you say the passive voice in this sentence?
It's here where it says the most expensive diamond in history
was stolen and recovered.
In this example, you can see that the object, the diamond,
is the focus of the clause, not the people who stole or recovered the diamond.
Now we are going to look at the other sentences from that same news story.
There are three sentences I've picked out. In all these sentences,
you can see that we have a subject, verb,
an object and the rest of the sentence, which doesn't usually change.
Someone stole a diamond from a jewellery store. Last night,
police arrested the thief in the early hours of the morning.
Mine workers had originally discovered the diamond in an Australian mine
in 1976. But
all of these sentences would be better in passive voice.
In these three sentences, the subject is less important than the object,
the subject is obvious or the subject
unknown. We'll talk more about that later.
OK let's first analyse how we make one of these sentences passive.
In the active form, the subject is at the start of the sentence.
Remember the order: subject, verb,
object and the rest of the sentence, again which doesn't change.
But here's what happens in the passive form.
We put the object at the beginning of the sentence.
We use the same verb structure - in this case past simple - and make
it the verb to be, was.
Then we take the original verb stole and change it to the past
participle.
It is really important to consider why we are using passive voice.
Generally, there are four main reasons.
First when the original subject is obvious and we can easily guess who it
is.
The faith was arrested by police in the early hours of the morning.
The subject is obvious. Only police are allowed to arrest people. Second,
when we don't know who it is.
A diamond was stolen by someone from a jewellery store
here. We know it is someone but we don't know who the subject is.
So we don't need to include it in the sentence. Third,
when the original subject is not important or when we don't really care about
the subject.
The diamond had originally been discovered by miners in an
Australian mine in 1976.
Here we have decided that the diamond in this case is more
important to the sentence than the mine workers.
This is the most common way of using passive voice. Just before we go,
notice that this example uses past perfect and includes an
adverb, which we put between the auxiliary verb and the past participle.
The fourth reason for using passive voice is because of academic distance.
This is the most difficult way to use passive voice.
It's quite a common one in academic writing. When we write academic texts,
we want to distance ourselves from the subject matter.
We want to appear as objective as possible. So look at this sentence.
I think climate change is the most important issue of our day.
Nothing wrong with this sentence but it's not in academic English.
I can make this more academic by distancing myself.
Many people think climate change is the most important issue in modern
society. Now I'm not involved even though it's still my opinion.
And to sound even more academic,
you could change the sentence to climate change is thought to be the most
important issue in modern society. In this case,
you are stating what appears to be a fact.
If it seems a little bit sneaky, it is!
Are you ready to put everything you've learned into practice?
Sometimes we could argue that a sentence is in passive for
several reasons and that's OK.
See if you can change these sentences into passive and decide the reason as to
why passive could be used. Before you start,
remember that the subject and the verbs still have to match.
Here's the first sentence.
Someone has left their car headlights on in the car park.
How would you change it to the passive form? And what would the reason be?
This is what I got:
Car headlights have been left on in the car park.
How about you?
Did you notice how the verb changed to past participle form:
have been left on?
Take note here of the change of the auxiliary verb has or have.
In the active sentence, the subject is singular third person:
someone.
So we use has.
When we change it to the passive,
the subject car headlights is plural so we
need to use have instead.
It's very easy to make a mistake with auxiliary verbs so be careful.
And what's the reason for changing it to passive? Yes, that's right.
The subject is someone. It's unknown.
The second sentence is:
I believe freedom of speech is a cornerstone of democracy.
What do you think
I've changed it to?
Freedom of speech is believed to be a
cornerstone of democracy.
And I think this indicates academic distance.
It's very formal and it's not very clear that this is my opinion.
Let's look at the next one.
A vet will operate on my dog's hip tomorrow morning.
How would you change this sentence to passive voice?
My dog's hip will be operated
on tomorrow morning.
It's pretty obvious only a vet can operate on an animal.
And because the subject is obvious, we don't need to mention it.
And finally,
engineers and architects completed the Sydney Harbor bridge in the
1930s. What about this one?
Well,
the subject engineers and architects,
in this case is not so important so we don't need to use it at all.
The Sydney Harbor bridge was completed
in the 1930s.
Can you see how these sentences written in passive voice sound very formal
and academic? Here
are some important tips to take note of.
Analyse the subject to object relationship.
Not every sentence can or should be made passive.
Remember the main structure of the verb to be plus past participle.
Get to know your regular verb forms.
Consider the reason as to why you are using passive voice.
This can really help you to choose the right one.
Remember to practise using passive in your writing and to notice it as
often as you can when you are reading.
This is a really challenging aspect of English grammar and it may take some time
to master it.
Thanks for joining me today.
I hope you enjoy practising your four reasons to change sentences into passive
voice.