Active and passive voice

Understanding some simple grammar rules will improve clarity in your writing. Properly using the Active and Passive voice in writing creates emphasis on particular ideas, actors, and actions.

Walden University has created an easy-to-follow example of to apply the active and passive voice in writing.

The APA Style Blog provides another simple resource to help you determine which voice to use, and when.

One of the main reasons why scientific writing is often unclear is because of excessive use of the passive voice. The passive voice makes it unclear who is doing what. You use passive voice when you want to put emphasis on the object in your sentence and the outcome of a process. Who actually did it does not matter:

Example

Increased soil pH has been predicted to have an inverse effect on soil microbial concentration.

This sentence does not reveal who predicted this, and in many cases, it does not matter. However, many sentences like this make your text more abstract and difficult to read. Often it is possible to state who predicted something, may that be a person or another concept.

Example

The hypothesis predicts increased soil pH will have an inverse effect on soil microbial concentration.

The sentence is now written in the active voice which makes it clearer and it creates a change from the monotony of the passive voice. Turning a sentence into the active voice can help you avoid unnecessary nominalization by creating subject action in your sentence. It is not wrong to write passive sentences. Sometimes when it really does not matter who did something, it might be more correct to write something in the passive voice. Just be aware that it generally makes your writing more abstract and difficult to read when used excessively.

Personal pronouns

Another way to turn passive sentences into active one is to add a personal pronoun and write something in the first person. The first person can be used both in singular or plural. The most common in academic writing are:

Singular

I, me, my, mine

Plural

We, us, our, ours

Many have learned that they should not use the first person in academic texts. When writing term papers, you usually focus on the information you have found in other academic sources and you have rarely produced your own knowledge. As you have not conducted any of your own research there is no reason why you would use the first person.

In your master thesis you have actually conducted your own research and it would be natural to write "I collected samples" or alternatively "We collected samples" if you want to include field assistants or your supervisor. Especially in your methods, the first person can be useful to show what you have done and help avoid passive language. This is acceptable in many scientific disciplines and you often see that scientific articles use the first person. Talk with your supervisor whether it would be acceptable for you to use the first person in parts of your thesis.

Related resources

First person

Active or passive voice

Vague pronouns

References

http://owll.massey.ac.nz/academic-writing/1st-vs-3rd-person.php

https://cgi.duke.edu/web/sciwriting/index.php?action=passive_voice

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/active_and_passive_voice/active_versus_passive_voice.html

https://www.aje.com/en/arc/editing-tip-avoiding-vague-pronouns/