Note that with the active voice, the researchers themselves are ‘put back into the action of the research’. Active voice: Showing researchers in action We demonstrated that our selected combination of catalysts notably increased the efficiency of the reaction. If it is rephrased into the active voice, it becomes shorter, and is also more engaging: This could come across as overly ‘factual’, and some would call it ‘dry’. It was demonstrated that the efficiency of the reaction was notably increased by the use of the selected combination of catalysts. However, if you look at recent articles in high-impact-factor journals, you will see that it is now very common for researchers to use them.Ĭonsider this sentence, which might be found in the Discussion section of a paper: Some people believe that it sounds more ‘scientific’, but more recently this view has been falling out of favour.Īlso, people can be particularly reluctant to use the active voice if it means that a sentence will include first-person pronouns (‘I’ or ‘we’), and they may even have been taught (especially in certain countries/cultures) to avoid them altogether in scientific writing. ![]() It emphasises the participants (people) rather than the interviews (objects).Īs noted, people writing in academic contexts have traditionally relied on the passive voice.It is slightly shorter and easier to read.This might seem like a subtle distinction, but there are two things that are worth noting about this active sentence: Here, the six participants are now at the beginning of the sentence, and rather than the action being performed on them, they are performing the action (‘completed’ being the verb). Six of the participants completed exploratory interviews. Now have a look at this (active) version of the sentence: ![]() This is an example of a passive construction: the action (‘were completed’) is performed on the subject of the sentence (‘six of the participants’). Active and passive voice explainedĮxploratory interviews were completed by six of the participants. But exactly what is the passive voice (vis-à-vis the active voice), and is it always right to use it in academic writing? This article explains what the active and passive voices are and gives some suggestions about when to use each. In academic writing, people naturally want to come across as being objective, and this often includes using the ‘passive voice’. Sometimes, the way in which something is expressed can be as important as what is being said.
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