USE OF PASSIVE VOICE IN PERSUASIVE WRITING
1. While writing in Active voice, the subject of the sentence does the acting. In contrast, in Passive voice, the subject or actor is ‘passive’- acted upon by someone or something else.
a) The Tribunal granted the stay. (active voice-subject before action verb)
b) The stay was granted by the tribunal. (passive voice-subject after action verb)
c) The stay was granted. (passive voice–subject missing)
2. Generally passive voice is harder to understand & takes more words however, you may choose to use passive voice, particularly in persuasive writing.
3. Use passive voice in persuasive writing when you want to de-emphasize the actor or even conceal the actor’s identity. For instance, if your client committed a crime, you might use passive voice to describe what happened. On the other hand, if your client is the victim, use active voice and active verbs to link the defendant to the crime.
a) The Defendant stabbed Ravi with a knife.(prosecution-active voice)
b) Ravi was stabbed. (defense -passive voice)
4. You may also use passive voice when you do not know who the actor is, when the actor’s identity is not important, or when you want to emphasize the action instead of the actor.
a) The authority was told that the defendant was a habitual offender.(it is not important who told the authority or we do not know)
b) A trial run of the new income tax portal was performed yesterday. (the new portal is more important than who performed it)
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CA Milind Wadhwani | DISA(ICAI), FAFD(Cert.), CCCA(Cert.), Research (Ph.D.) Scholar | Mobile +91 9826273333 | Mail ID: – MILIND.WADHWANI20@GMAIL.COM
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