![]() Use the voice most appropriate for your print collateral, and you’re more likely to achieve the tone you’re looking for.In English class, we are taught the difference between active and passive voice. These examples demonstrate the fact the active and passive voice lend themselves best to specific types of business writing. Examples could include a scientific report, a company handbook or a contract. Use passive voice in any situation where you want to sound like an objective third party. Using words like “you” is a great way to engage someone when you’re providing them with a benefit, but it’s another case entirely when you’re telling them what they can’t do. The downside to active voice is that it can sound confrontational. It sounds a little accusatory: “ You must not be under the influence.” After reading both examples, which company do you think you’d feel more comfortable working at?Įven though both lists are grammatically correct, simply changing the way that the sentences are structured completely changes the tone. The active voice version is straightforward, almost to the point of being blunt. Personal calls (except for emergency calls) are not to be made during work hours.Īgain, the passive voice list is clearly a bit longer in terms of number of words, but take a closer look. Do not make personal calls (except for emergency calls) during work hours.Ĥ. Soliciting or promoting support for any cause or organization (including political parties) during paid work hours is not permitted.Ĥ. You may not solicit or promote support for any cause or organization (including political parties) during paid work hours.ģ. ![]() Using company property for personal use is prohibited.ģ. Do not use company property for personal use.Ģ. Employees are not permitted to be under the influence or in possession of drugs or alcohol during paid work hours.Ģ. You must not be under the influence or in possession of drugs or alcohol during paid work hours.ġ. Here’s another pair of examples two lists of company regulations written in active and passive voice.ġ. In particular, it’s very appropriate when creating rules, regulations or legal writing for a business. This makes it fall flat when it comes to most promotional writing, but it does have its uses. Passive voice is more detached and impersonal than active. This makes active voice the better choice for any marketing collateral designed to engage and excite the reader. It keeps you reading, while passive voice is more ponderous and takes more effort to trudge through. Overall, active voice just has a much better flow. The “100 friendly and healthy animals” are bound to be more appealing than “a new home” (assuming, of course, that the flyer is targeted towards humans and not dogs). Someone less familiar with the English language might need to read it multiple times before they fully understood it.Īlso, notice that the active voice sentence leads with the subject that is of most interest to the reader. In this case, the passive voice sentence is a lot more awkward to read. ![]() Passive voice has a tendency to sound convoluted and pretentious. Passive Voice: A new home is the dream of over 100 friendly animals at Pretend Animal Shelter. ![]() Let’s pull an example sentence from both versions of the flyer:Īctive Voice: Over 100 friendly and healthy animals are hoping for a new home. In addition to making sentences more immediate and easy to understand, active voice helps to conserve sentence length. Space is a hot commodity in print collateral, and every word counts. One’s written entirely in active voice, the other in passive voice.Įven with a quick glance, you can see that one flyer clearly uses more words than the other. Take a look at the following flyer examples for a fictional animal shelter. This makes it the best choice for most types of writing, particularly anything designed to promote a product, service, event or business. When to use active voiceĪctive voice, like the name obviously suggests, is active. ![]() Now, let’s get a little more in-depth and take a look at some business copywriting examples to see active and passive voice in practice. If you’ve read that post, you hopefully have a good handle on the basic definition and difference between active voice and passive voice sentences. A couple weeks ago, we explored how to use passive and active voice in business writing. ![]()
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