The “voice” of verbs (active or passive) is different than the “tense” of verbs. Tense defines action within time, when the verb happens. Voice defines the relationship between subject and verb, who ...
My brother frequently drives from New Jersey to New York across the George Washington Bridge to visit our 94-year-old mom. Her name is Shirley Clark, and she likes Chris Christie. She prefers her ...
When the subject of a sentence isn't doing something, the verb is passive. On the other hand, a sentence is active when the subject performs the verb (action). For example, in this sentence the verb ...
For many writers, feedback that your copy is "too passive" can be frustrating. The passive voice is, after all, grammatically correct. But there's a reason that public relations and communications ...
Writing in the active voice makes the meaning clear while keeping sentences from becoming complicated and wordy. Sentences using passive voice are not necessarily wrong, just less effective than ...
The Thousand Words Project was an exciting lesson in my classroom; students were engaged and were able to see a new way of approaching writing. Students who are visual learners got a chance to ...
It was relatively quiet on the public service vehicle headed for Kakamega from Nairobi when someone’s mobile phone shrilled. After the customary 'hallo', there followed a hearty laugh, then; “You ...
1. The voice of the verb is distinct from its tense. Don't confuse the passive voice with the past tense. (Sentence 2 happens to be in the past tense, but 3 is not; both 2 and 3 are in the passive ...