Using active voice for web copy
When writing online we always recommend ‘the active voice’ – it is more direct, less wordy, easier to understand. Active voice helps people to grab information quickly and naturally leads to a more conversational tone of voice.
What is the difference between active and passive voice?
This is the way I’ve always explained it:
Active voice is when the subject is doing something or causing the action
“John kicked the ball” – the sentence describes who does what to whom, John is kicking the ball..
The passive voice is the other way around – something is being done to the subject, the subject is the recipient of the action
“The ball was kicked by John” – the subject (the ball) is being kicked by John
More examples of the active voice:
Active: Craig slammed down his iPhone
Passive: The iPhone was slammed down by Craig
Active voice minutes: “We discussed user journeys. Jane presented the analytics report, further user testing will be undertaken next quarter
Passive voice minutes: “User journeys were discussed by those in attendance. The analytics report was presented by Jane, it was agreed that further user testing is to be undertaken next quarter“
Writing in the active voice uses less word, makes copy more concise which ticks another online writing basic – remove excess words and use smaller everyday words where possible.
