Enlisting the power of the verb

Second, the passive construction (‘has been discussed’) not only forces the use of the auxiliary verb ‘to be’, but also reduces energy by removing the agent of the action from the sentence. As Richard Lanham pointed out, you can’t tell ‘who’s kicking who?’ (sic) in a sentence in the passive voice [1]. Accordingly, in the example above you can’t tell who is doing the ‘discussing’. Traditionally, the passive voice was required in scholarly writing because it conveyed a situation in which rigorous methods revealed facts but no person actually created them [2]. Many contemporary writers mistakenly believe that passive voice is a ‘rule’ they must obey. In many current scientific genres, however, active voice is not only allowed, it is preferred. It remains true that academic writing should have a balanced tone, but this does not mean that it has to be stagnant. The following revision increases the energy in this sentence through two strategies: it converts passive (‘has been discussed’) to active voice (‘have leveraged’) and changes a noun phrase (‘professionalism in medical students’) to an active verb (‘medical students develop and demonstrate their professionalism’): Medical education scholars have leveraged multiple perspectives to understand how medical students develop and demonstrate their professionalism. In this revision, the action is more robust—things are leveraged, developed and demonstrated—and it is being accomplished by clear agents—medical education scholars and medical students. It has energy, it carries the reader along. To identify the passive voice in your sentences, ask yourself ‘who’s kicking who?’ If you can’t tell, you’re dealing with the passive. To revise into active voice, put the agent into the subject position (often the noun immediately prior to the verb). Consider this example: In the writer’s craft section we offer simple tips to improve your writing in one of three areas: Energy, Clarity and Persuasiveness. Each entry focuses on a key writing feature or strategy, illustrates how it commonly goes wrong, teaches the grammatical underpinnings necessary to understand it and offers suggestions to wield it effectively. We encourage readers to share comments on or suggestions for this section on Twitter, using the hashtag: #how’syourwriting?