1. Active and Passive Voice

2. Pick a partner! • Partner one = ACTIVE • Partner two = PASSIVE ACTIVE partner: • Smile at your partner. • Shake hands with your partner. • Turn your partner around. • Hug your partner. • Point at your partner. • Compliment your partner.

3. Discuss • What are the differences between the two roles played in the activity?

4. Discussion Goal • The person in the ACTIVE role acts while the person in the PASSIVE role receives an action, or is acted upon • Create sentences that show the actions using both passive and active voices. • Example: Active: Ms. Koppen smiled at Kim. Passive: Kim was smiled at by Ms. Koppen.

5. Active Voice • The subject of the sentence --- what or who it is about --- does the action. SUBJECT - PERFORMS - ACTION When the subject performs the action, then the verb is in the active voice. Active voice keeps writing more lively and interesting. Ex: Scientists discovered that a major earthquake caused the deadly tsunami. Who or what is the sentence about? What is the action?

6. Passive Voice • The subject of the sentence --- who or what it is about --- receives the action or is acted upon. SUBJECT -RECIEVES  ACTION When the subject receives the action, then the verb is in the passive voice. This makes writing more wordy and less interesting. Ex: It was discovered by scientists that the deadly tsunami was caused by a major earthquake. Who or what is the sentence about? What is the action?

7. “to be” or not “to be” • An easy way to limit the use of passive voice is to limit the use of forms of the verb “to be.” • Be, being, been, am, is, are, was, were • Also, limit the use of forms of “to have.” • Have, has, had

8. Practice: Convert the following passive sentences into active sentences! • 1. Residents of La Conchita were warned to leave everything behind and evacuate their homes. • Hundreds of boxes of cookies were sent to the soldiers serving in Iraq by the Girl Scout troops in Texas. • Citizens from around the world were thanked by government officials for making generous donations to the victims of the disaster. • It was determined by researchers a long time ago that dinosaurs were probably made extinct by natural disasters. • All students were told to report to the football stadium whenever a certain bell signal was given.