Choosing Between Active and Passive Voice in Academic Writing

The old rule was never really a rule

For decades, students were told that academic writing should use the passive voice. "The experiment was conducted" sounded more scientific than "We conducted the experiment." That convention came from a desire to sound objective and keep the researcher out of the frame. It produced millions of dense, lifeless sentences.

The advice has shifted. Most modern style guides, including the APA Publication Manual, now recommend the active voice for clarity. The passive still has a place, but it is a tool for specific situations, not a default. The goal is to choose deliberately rather than apply a blanket rule.

Active versus passive at a glance

When the passive still earns its place

The passive is not a sin. It is the right choice when the actor is genuinely unimportant or unknown. "The samples were stored at negative 20 degrees" works because who stored them is beside the point. "A new treatment was approved last year" works because the approving body matters less than the approval.

The passive also helps when you want to emphasize the object of the action over the doer. In a results section, the findings are the star, not the researchers. There, a passive construction can keep the focus where it belongs. The problem is not the passive itself but its automatic overuse.

Times to prefer the active voice

• Describing your own methods, where "we" is clearer than hiding the team.
• Stating arguments and conclusions, where an active claim is stronger.
• Any sentence where naming the actor removes ambiguity.
• When a passive sentence is hiding who did something important.

A practical way to choose

1. 1
   Find the real subject of the sentence

   Ask who or what is doing the action. If that actor matters to the reader, put it in the subject position and write actively. If the actor is irrelevant, the passive may be cleaner.

2. 2
   Check for hidden actors

   Passive sentences like "It was decided that" often hide a person or group making the call. If the reader needs to know who decided, rewrite to name them.

3. 3
   Watch for strings of passives

   One passive is fine. Three in a row drains the energy from a paragraph. When you spot a chain, convert at least one back to active.

4. 4
   Match the convention of your field

   Some disciplines and journals still expect passive methods sections. When in doubt, follow the style of recently published papers in your target venue.

Clarity is the actual goal

The active-versus-passive debate is really a clarity debate. Active sentences tend to be shorter, more direct, and easier to follow. Passive sentences can be useful, but they add words and often blur who did what. When you edit, read for that blur. If a sentence leaves the reader guessing about the actor, rewrite it.

Treat voice as a deliberate choice, sentence by sentence. Field conventions matter, and so does your target journal. But the underlying principle is constant: pick the voice that makes the meaning easiest for the reader to grasp.