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And sometimes you genuinely want to emphasize the object of the action, rather than the actor:

Seating arrangements at the event caused some controversy. Corporate representatives sat at the lower tables. The main table was occupied by the mayor and his special guests.

The last sentence in this short passage is in the passive voice, but it’s a good choice. It’s sensible to make “the main table” the subject of the sentence: the real issue is the seating arrangements, rather than the mayor and his pals.

Although the passive voice is grammatically correct and sometimes preferable, you’re usually better off favoring the active voice in business writing. Many business writers fall into the habit of depending on the passive voice because they see other writers doing it. The sound gets into their heads as the proper sound of business and professional writing, and they simply replicate what they hear. However, active constructions have advantages over passive ones: they’re shorter, they’re more direct, they’re easier to read, and they’re more engaging. They sound more personal—that impersonal, businessy, “official” tone isn’t always what you want—and they create a sense of agency in the sentence: there’s a person (or a thing sometimes) who’s taking action.

As with any other style choice, your use of the passive or active voice should be your decision rather than something you fall into because you don’t know how to control it. Learning to convert passive constructions into active ones, and vice versa, gives you more control over your own writing.

So how do you change a passive construction into an active one? Follow these three steps:

1. Diagnose the passive voice by looking for forms of the verb “to be,” like “is,” “are,” “has been,” “have been,” and so on, plus the past participle of the verb (usually ending in “-ed”). Passive sentences will sometimes contain phrases beginning with “by” to indicate who or what is doing the action.

2. Ask yourself who or what is doing the acting in the sentence, and who or what is receiving the action. 3. Flip the sentence so the actor is the subject.

Let’s try an example:

The models are used by the teams to project revenue.

1. Form of the verb “to be” followed by a past participle? Yes, “are used.” 2. Who or what is doing the acting in the sentence? It’s the teams. 3. Flip the sentence so that the actor is the subject:

The teams use the models to project revenue.

You can see that the revision isn’t just shorter, it’s also clearer and more direct. Here are a few samples for you to practice on. (Solutions are at the bottom of the next page.)

A. Stress testing is conducted by banks to ensure adequate capital levels. B. The guidelines were rewritten by legal counsel to prevent future breaches. C. Personas are used by marketers to help them understand who their target customers are. D. The faulty monitor was replaced.

(Notice that in the last sentence, the person doing the replacing doesn’t even appear. In your revision, you get to make up who did it.)

“THERE IS,” “THERE ARE,” “IT IS”

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