Active and passive voice can be used strategically when communicating in the workplace. Generally, active voice should be used when you are writing business messages because it sounds lively and direct. However, passive voice can be helpful when writing bad news messages. Do you know the difference between the active and passive voice? In this activity, you will identify sentences as either active or passive. Then, you will rewrite them to become either active or passive.
You can use active and passive voice strategically when it comes to business communication. Now that you know the difference, try to apply active voice in most of your business messages, but reserve passive voice when you are trying to show tact, de-emphasize bad news, or conceal the person responsible for an action. For more practice on active and passive voice, check out pages 169–173 of your text (Chapter 5).