Section 19.6 Active vs. Passive for Concision
You have already encountered the active-passive distinction in earlier chapters, where the focus was on how passive constructions are formed and what they do grammatically. Here the question is different: when should you choose one over the other, and why? Part of the answer involves concision. Passive constructions typically require more words than their active equivalents, because the agent—the doer of the action—is either pushed into a prepositional phrase or left out entirely. In many cases, restoring the agent to subject position and using active voice produces a shorter, more direct sentence.
But concision is not the only consideration. Sometimes the passive is the right choice, and shorter is not always better.
Active voice is often more concise than passive:
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Passive: The report was written by the committee. (8 words)
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Active: The committee wrote the report. (5 words)
However, passive can be more concise when the agent is obvious or irrelevant:
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Active: Someone stole my car. (4 words)
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Passive: My car was stolen. (4 words—same length, but agent-free)
Choose based on what’s most efficient for your purpose.
