Jump to content

Pro writers: how much do you try to avoid passive voice?


daviddoer

Recommended Posts

I use grammarly, and it’s always yelling at me about passive voice. I did some research and decided I didn’t think it was a big deal to use passive voice. I will change to active voice when it’s not too much trouble, but sometimes its really hard to change to active voice without adding a lot more unnecessary words.

Then I got on wordpress, and it also yells at me about passive voice, so now I’m wondering if I should care.

I would love to hear the opinions of some writers who are more experienced than me.

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To begin with, I am not a fan of Grammarly - way too many “False Positives” and it tries to force you into its way of writing, whereas my style is different. I use it for checking spelling and pretty much nothing else…

With regard to passive voice, I only use it if that is what the content demands - places where it might be suitable include:

  • Some research and reports.
  • Some white papers.
  • Drier, slightly more academic work.

Around 90% of my writing is “Active voice, second person” - addressing the reader directly, talking them through what they need to do right now. But, most of my writing is website copy and articles, where that approach works pretty well.

I also tend to use quite a bit of white space, bullet and number lists, short paragraphs, and clear headings. I also try to mix up long and short sentences to maintain interest in the reader.

Hope this helps!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To begin with, I am not a fan of Grammarly - way too many “False Positives” and it tries to force you into its way of writing, whereas my style is different. I use it for checking spelling and pretty much nothing else…

With regard to passive voice, I only use it if that is what the content demands - places where it might be suitable include:

  • Some research and reports.
  • Some white papers.
  • Drier, slightly more academic work.

Around 90% of my writing is “Active voice, second person” - addressing the reader directly, talking them through what they need to do right now. But, most of my writing is website copy and articles, where that approach works pretty well.

I also tend to use quite a bit of white space, bullet and number lists, short paragraphs, and clear headings. I also try to mix up long and short sentences to maintain interest in the reader.

Hope this helps!

Thanks a lot! I’ll try to cut down when possible, I think I’m over 25% passive, typically.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...