Passive voice fails readers

We editors can be persnickety. Some of the rules we enforce might seem arbitrary—but we don’t insist on them just to be scolds. We demand good grammar because it serves readers.

Take the use of passive voice, probably the most common and insidious writing problem. Here’s passive voice in action:

Ten pizzas were ordered to arrive at midnight.

This sentence looks fine at first glance—you know what happened and when. But it omits key information: Who ordered those pizzas, anyway?

Consider how much more information the writer could convey using active voice:

Team parents ordered 10 pizzas to arrive at midnight. A prank caller ordered 10 pizzas to arrive at midnight. My little sister ordered 10 pizzas to arrive at midnight.

Writers often slip into passive voice out of habit. When they do, encourage them to start each sentence with its subject. That practice will help them identify the information the reader needs and deliver it directly.

Please give us a shout if you’d like to talk about passive voice, midnight pizza or anything else. We’d love to hear from you.