Admissions Essay Style and Tone: Verbs

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Essay Verbs

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The reason we are devoting nearly an entire section to tips on removing the passive voice from your writing is that it is both a very common fMedical and very easily correctable.

Defining Passive Voice

Passive voice occurs when the subject and object of an action are inverted, so the subject is the recipient of the act instead of its performer. For example:

Passive: The man was bitten by the dog.
Active: The dog bit the man.

Passive: I was told by my teacher to come at noon.
Active: My teacher told me to come at noon.

Note that the word “by” is present in these two examples. A sentence can be passive without the word “by,” but it is always at least implied. For example: “I was given bad directions [by my friend].”

Passive voice always involves a to be verb. To be verbs include am, are, been, being, is, was, were. On the other hand, remember that a sentence can include a to be verb without being passive. For example:

“I have been involved in this organization for several years.” “He is leaving in five minutes.”

Later we will discuss ways to avoid to be verbs even when they are not in passive-voice constructions.