1.4 SAT Writing - The Active vs. the Passive Voice

The Active vs. the Passive Voice:  The distinction between the active voice and the passive voice is one of the most helpful distinctions to improve pacing and gain accuracy.  When you spot the passive voice, as we will develop below, you may cancel out the choice as a possibility.  Since the SAT test maker only rewards the active voice, passive responses are incorrect.  So what is the difference?  I will use to simple examples to answer this question.  Take the following two sentences:

The books were put on the shelf by me. (Passive)

I put the books on the shelf.  (Active)

The first sentence, as I suggest, is in the passive voice for two key reasons.  First, "books" functions as the subject of the sentence; whereas, the true actor who is doing the "putting" is contained in the prepositional phrase.  Second, if the actor does not function as the subject, then the SAT writer is committed to using a wordy verb phrase, i.e., "were put."  There is no reason for this long-winded version.  Instead, use the active voice.  The second example demonstrates the actor as the subject, namely, "I" and the object of the sentence is "books."  Notice that a natural byproduct of using the active voice is the use of fewer words.  A common means for spotting the passive voice is to understand its typical sequence.  Consider the following sequence: Linking Verb + Action Verb + Prepositional Phrase.  When you find this sequence, you have spotted the passive voice.  The great aspect of this recognition is that you may immediately cancel an answer choice out if you find the passive.  More importantly, if the stem question contains the passive voice, then the correct response must be in the active voice.