Active Voice

v/s

Passive Voice

In
Scientific Writing
What is the primary purpose of
scientific writing?

To convey information

clearly,
concisely,
objectively
What do scientific writers across
the globe agree upon?

Clear, simple, straightforward writing

should be the goal of every science writer

Direct, action verbs are better than verbs

of “being” , whatever be the voice.
 Review of the terms

Active voice – the subject in the

sentence performs an action e.g. Harry
ate six shrimp at dinner

Passive voice – the subject in the

sentence receives the action e.g. At
dinner, six shrimp were eaten by Harry
Advantages of Active Voice in
Scientific Writing

Emphasizes the author’s responsibility

E.g. The entire stretch of the highway

was paved by the crew (passive)
v/s
The crew paved the entire stretch of the
highway (active)
 Increases Readability of the
content

E.g. The hair loss was caused by

Vitamin A (passive)

v/s

Vitamin A caused hair loss (active)

 Reduces ambiguity in writing

E.g. To investigate the source of nutrients,

eggshell membranes were compared
(passive)

v/s

To investigate the source of nutrients, we

compared the eggshell membranes (active)
 Advantages of Passive Voice in
Scientific Writing

Emphasizes the result, not who did the

experiment

E.g. We found that annealing the films at high

temperature increased the voids (active)
v/s
Voids were increased by annealing the films at
high temperature (passive)
 Presents the findings in a neutral, clear,
straightforward way

E.g. We found that 90% of the energy in

light bulbs is wasted in the form of heat
(active)

v/s

About 90% of the energy in light bulbs is

wasted in the form of heat (passive)
Take-away messages for scientific
writers

#1 Choose the

active voice

whenever possible
 #2 Use passive voice when

o The performer of the action is unknown

o The performer of the action is less

important than the action

o When you want to focus on the action

rather than the performer
 #3 Decide what you want to
emphasize and put important
stuff first
#4 Use simple
language
and short
sentences
#5 Strive for clarity and conciseness
rather than fretting over voice