Identifying Active and Passive Voice Writing Worksheets

Related ELA Standard: L.8.3.A

Core Standard
Answer Keys Here

Active voice sentence involve the subject of the sentence taking action. This usually means that the subject of the sentence is performing the action of the verb that appears in the sentence. In passive voice writing the subject of the sentence is being acted on by the verb that appears. In general active voice writing is more to the point and straight forward than passive efforts. The goal of most teachers is to have students focus their writing on the active voice. This collection of worksheets will help students be able to identify the type of voice taken place in a sentence and re-writing those sentences.

Active and Passive Voice Writing Worksheets To Print:

Active and Passive Writing Voice - Label the type of voice used by the author that is found in each sentence.

Sentence Slasher - Which part of the slash is the right one? Saying them aloud will really help you.

"A"is for Active; "P" is for Passive - The title says it all for you here. This is a two part exercise that will move in different directions.

Make It Passive - You are giving an active sentence, turn it around. This may take you a few times to get right.

Activate It - Make it work for you in the right order. This is the reverse of the previous worksheet.

Rewrite It Actively - Rewrite each sentence that is provided for you. We are just working on the presentation of it towards the readers.

Label It - If the sentence is written in active voice, write Active. If the sentence is in passive voice, write Passive.

Break It Down - You will slant this work to will of the directions it is up to you.

Voice It Use - Read the sentences below and underline the verb. In the blank space provided, write whether passive or active voice is used.

Activate The Blank Space - You will pivot these works in the way that chose or are instructed to do. This will definitely improve your writing.

Circle It - You will evaluate a series of different sentences to focus yourself on the correct mode.

Make The Sentence Lay Back A Bit - You will flip these statements upside down to make them work more towards your advantage.

Make It Go! - This exercise approaches the skill from several different layers and will help you focus.

Mark It Up - Block it and change the voice of the work for yourself for extra credit. This is an identification activity.

What's In A Blank? - This is a great review section for yourself to grow and master this skill.

When To Use Active and Passive Voice in Your Writing


In general you true goal should be to focus on writing in an active voice, in many case. The active voice is transparent and simple to gauge the subject, verb, and the actions of the sentence. The passive voice is very wordy and lengthy at times. To the reader, the passive voice is hard to follow and not clear at all. You can easily get tripped up on what is important in the work itself. Let's take a look at the differences.


Here is a sentence in the active voice:


I will attend lacrosse practice every Tuesday.


Let's see the same sentence written in a passive voice:


The lacrosse practice will be attended by me every Tuesday.


As you can see these lengthy sentences are pretty confusing. You should focus yourself on using the active voice in most cases, but there are times that call for using the passive voice as well. I find it helpful to use the passive voice to take attention away from the subject. Political offices are great at this. In politics placing blame on any one party often doesn't help your relationship with that group. When you want to emphasis the action of the verb rather than the subject that is performing the action, this is the perfect case for passive voice.


In the end, the form of expression that you use should match your intentions with your message. It depends on which part of your sentence you would like your readers to focus on. The passive form is used to focus more on the subject of the sentence, it draws the audience in to focus on the doer. The active form shifts the focus of your attention on the action itself. One place that you will see the use of voice to have undergo a blatant transformation is journalism. The golden rule in journalism for a very long time has been to report things in an unbiased manner. This would mean reporting things in the active mode which focuses on what happened, not who was involved. As journalism has transitioned to be more of an entertainment venue than a public well being service, we have seen the voice of things that are written and presented in broadcast news toned in a more passive form. In many cases falling just a peg short of asserting blame to individuals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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