Writing tips are shared in this newsletter each week, and no exception is being made today. Election-related terminology has been shared in recent weeks, but a different type of writing guideline will be focused on today. Can you guess what it is?

If you cringed reading that first paragraph, you probably guessed it. Today we're covering passive voice, which was one of your top picks last week in our poll about common writing mistakes. Here's the poll again if you didn't get a chance to weigh in yet:

It's difficult to offer a concise definition of the passive voice, but here is our attempt: In the passive voice, the grammatical subject of a sentence is not the person or thing performing the action of the sentence's verb. (Here's a review of subjects and objects in sentences.) Instead, the person or thing performing the verb either comes after the verb or is absent entirely.

"The lamp was turned off by Mira" is passive.

The alternative to passive voice is active voice, which is when the grammatical subject of the sentence is also the person or thing performing the action of the verb.

"Mira turned off the lamp" is active.

Here's the first paragraph of this newsletter rewritten in the active voice: We share writing tips in this newsletter each week, and we're not making an exception today. We've shared election-related terminology in recent weeks, but we'll focus on a different type of writing guideline today.

Which paragraph do you like better?

We ask because passive voice is not wrong. Active voice usually enhances clarity. (For example, in the sentences in the first paragraph, the actual subject is absent, making it unclear who is sharing writing tips, who is making no exceptions and who is focusing on a different guideline.) However, passive voice is still used in professional writing. (See what we did there?)

If you want to go deeper on some of the finer points of English grammar — or you know someone who could use a few lessons — check out our grammar guide.

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