Using active voice is a plain language principle. We recommend active voice for government writing.

There are 2 voices in sentence construction:

• Active voice emphasises the person or thing doing the action.
• Passive voice emphasises the receiver of the action.

The first example emphasises ‘the government’, which performs the action ‘adopted’. The second example emphasises ‘the committee’s recommendation’, which receives the action.

Benefits

The active voice is more direct than the passive voice. This makes it easier for readers to understand who is doing what.

The examples above also demonstrate 2 other benefits of using active voice. Active sentences speak more to ‘you’ and are usually shorter.

Agentless passives

Readers often encounter a type of government writing called the ‘agentless passive’.

Who implemented the reform? The sentence is missing the ‘agent’ that performs the action. Frustrated readers must search for some context to work out who’s responsible. Make sure you provide that context.

When to use passive voice

Sometimes, passive sentences have their place.

You might want to emphasise the receiver of the action.

Here, we want to focus on the students and their protest, not on the resolution. 

Even the agentless passive is acceptable when:

• no-one knows who is doing the action
• who is doing the action is implied
• we don’t need to know (or shouldn’t know) who is doing the action.