Active voice

https://developers.google.com/tech-writing/one/active-voice

• Majority of sentences should be active.

1. Distinguish active vs passive

• Active - actor acts on target.
• Passive - reverse formula
• Some passive omit actor

2. Recognize passive verbs

• [Special case] Imperative verbs are typically active.
  • May not explicitely mention actor.
  • e.g. Open the configuration file

3. Prefer active voice vs passive

• Readers mentally convert passive to active in mind.
• Stick to active voice. Skip the conversion.
• Passive reports indirectly.
• Some passive omit actors. Readers need to guess.
• Active is generally shorter.
• Be Bold Be Active

4. Scientific research reports

It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.

• It has been suggested that...
• Data was taken...
• Statistics were calculated...
• Results were evaluated.

Do we know who is doing what to whom? No.

Does the passive voice somehow make the information more objective? No.