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Why write in active voice (and how to do it)

Writing your content in active voice (rather than passive) helps your content to be more engaging to readers. Here’s how you can use active voice when writing.

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What do I mean by Active Voice and Passive Voice?

Writing in the active voice emphasizes the person (or subject) who performs an action. For example, “Kim designs websites.” The subject, Kim, performs the action, designs.

Passive voice writing emphasizes the recipient of the action. Here, the same sentence would say, “Websites are designed by Kim”. I’m correct in writing this, technically, but the sentence feels weaker.

Why you should avoid the Passive Voice

Writing in the passive voice comes across as wishy-washy and wordy. The sentence may be correct, but I could word it better.

Studies have shown many people struggle to understand passive voice sentences. You should communicate with clarity when writing, especially for your business. Readers will leave your website or scroll past your post if they can’t understand it quickly and easily.

In this information age, words bombard our readers all day long. Content creators must make their content clear and attention grabbing, or risk being ignored.

When you write in active voice instead of passive, you’re helping your readers.

Are you ready to improve your writing?

I struggled for years to write clearly. I wrote in passive voice, mostly in fact. Sometimes I find old posts and cringe. Yikes.

An app called ProWritingAid helped me improve my writing. Not only does ProWritingAid spell check my work, it also checks grammar, usage and style. ProWritingAid suggests ways to tighten up my writing and helps me write better.

I consider ProWritingAid to be an essential tool for any entrepreneur. Communicating online is an essential business skill today. This handy app helps you communicate better, even if you’re not a natural born writer.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Why write in active voice on your website (and how to do it)

Kimberly

Kimberly

I help small business and solopreneurs grow their businesses through strategic design services for web and print, while patiently guiding them around tech hurdles. My mission is to positively impact small businesses and their communities with awesome design for web and print.
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