Writing “The product was sold by Peter” is longer and less direct than “Peter sold the product”. In other words, the active voice is shorter and gets straight to the point. Therefore, use it as much as you can when you write.
🧿 Active Voice: “Peter sold the product”
Apply the active voice most of the time. It is more common, simpler, and shorter. It will make your writing easier to understand. Also, it will avoid confusion because the active voice always shows who did what (in this case, Peter).
🧿 Passive Voice: “The product was sold by Peter”
Use the passive voice when you do not know or don’t want to mention who is responsible for the action, as in “A mistake was made”; or when what happened is more important than who did it: “My house was damaged by a storm”.
Examples
🔘 “Bessie was reprimanded” is a passive voice sentence. We don’t know or don’t want to say who reprimanded Bessie. The important point is that she was told off, not who did it.
🔘 “Professor Smith reprimanded Bessie” is an active voice example. We know who reprimanded Bessie: Professor Smith. It avoids any confusion on that matter. It’s also simple and direct.
🔘 “The email was sent this morning.” This is in the passive voice. We know an email was sent, but the sentence doesn’t tell us who did it. Maybe it’s irrelevant; maybe we don’t know.
🔘 “The company sent the email this morning.” In this active voice sentence the subject—the company— does the action “send.” We know clearly who did what.
When in doubt, go for the active! As I said before, it’s shorter, clearer, and more direct!
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