Oyster Packing and the Passive Voice

Three of the verb forms in this sentence are a great illustration of how the passive voice can be the best fit for a sentence:

Shucked oysters packed in their liquor will keep up to a week if kept quite cold.

Here’s the same sentence recast in the active voice:

If you shuck oysters and pack them in their liquor, they will keep up to a week if you keep them quite cold.

The passive voice usually streamlines a sentence by making it clear who does what. But in this case, the active voice makes the sentence longer with the unnecessary pronouns you, they, and them.

When you’re deciding whether to use the active or passive voice, just ask yourself if it matters who takes an action, and decide which option delivers your meaning more easily.

If you ran an oyster bar and retail outlet, you’d probably prefer the first sentence.

Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

Write It Well’s book Essential Grammarincludes a chapter on verbs to help you boost the impact of all your business documents.

We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!