Identify each clause in the remaining eight sentences as either in active or passive voice and as an independent or dependent clause. All of these clauses use active or passive voice - no "to be" here.. Only two clauses below use passive voice.

Active and Passive Voice and Independent and Dependent Clauses

Active voice, in which your sentence's subjects act or do an action, works as your best "default" writing choice. Active voice allows you to say more in fewer words and composing in active voice can clarify your thinking.

Active voice will not use any form of "to be," so avoid the words "be," "am," "is," "are," "was," "were," "being," and "been" when you write in active voice. For the first sentence of every paragraph in the class's p a p e r s, you will w r i t e in active voice only.

In the two para-graphs above, I've used only active voice. I underlined these active voice verbs.

Here's some practice with active voice:

1) Identify active and passive voice in eight of the nine sentences listed below.  I’ve completed the first one as an example.

You may want to review the PowerPoint assignment on active and passive voice with song lyrics.

2) Also, identify dependent and independent clauses in each sentence. I’ve completed the first one as an example.

All clauses have at least a subject and a verb.

If a subject + verb pair can stand on its own as a sentence, it makes an independent clause.

If the subject + verb pair wouldn’t work as a complete sentence, it’s a dependent clause.

I’ve given each clause in each of the nine sentences below its own line. Sentences with more than one clause, such as #3, may have both active and passive voice and both independent and dependent clauses.

All of the examples below are either active or passive voice; however, not all clauses are either active or passive. Some clauses don't have an action at all, so they are neither active nor passive. For example, in the clause "This milk is organic," the verb "is" connects milk and organic but the milk neither acts (active voice) nor is acted upon (passive voice).

In active voice clauses, the subject does an action. In passive voice clauses, an action is done to the subject.

Passive voice will always use this form: “to be” verb + a past participle: (“is” + done)

A past participle looks like a past tense verb, but in passive voice it functions as an adjective, modifying the subject:

Active voice: The late frost killed the peach blossoms.

The subject, frost, acts.

Passive voice: The peach blossoms were killed by the late frost.

The subject here, blossoms, are acted upon in passive voice. The past participle, “killed” refers to the dead blossoms.

Completed Example:

1a-first clause of #1) A Montana gas station attendant is suspected of murders / Passive Voice [“to be” verb + past participle, the attendant is acted upon], Independent Clause [this clause would work as its own sentence].

1b-second clause of #1) . . . that a serial killer and others actually committed. /Active Voice [the serial killer and others acted], Dependent Clause [this clause could not work as its own sentence].

Identify each clause in the remaining eight sen-tences as either in active or passive voice and as an independent or dependent clause. All of these clauses use active or passive voice - no "to be" here.. Only two clauses below use passive voice.

2a - only one clause) A mob boss orders a hit on an Ohio prosecutor.

3a - first clause of #3 ) The fleet faces starvation

3b - second clause of #3 ) . . .when the food-processing machinery is contaminated;

3c - third clause of #3) Baltar discovers

3d - fourth clause of #3) that D’Anna uses the power of resurrection to look beyond the physical world.

4a - only one clause) Lois loses $20,000 gambling at the Indian casino.

5a - only one clause) In 1947, actress Elizabeth Short’s corpse is found nude and bisected in an empty lot.

6a - only one clause) Meg lands an internship working with the school nerd at a television station.

7a - first clause of #7) Kellerman and Pembleton pull desk duty;

7b -  second clause #7) Lewis and Simmons investigate heroin-related deaths

7c - third clause of #7) . . .that lead to Luther Mahoney.

8a - first clause of #8) Detectives Briscoe and Green suspect

8b - second clause of #8) . . . that a woman and her lover hired a gunman to kill her husband.

9a-only one clause) Shakespeare’s melancholy Danish prince avenges his father’s murder.