Active and Passive Voice

Lesson Pre-quiz

Presented by the Business Writing Center,
training business writers since 1997

The Center offers other free online tests at this link: Online Tests,




IMPORTANT: Passive voice sentences have part of the sentence that does not state the actor. Active voice sentences state the actor. For each sentence, look for an action that has no actor. "Mistakes were made" has no actor. It is in passive voice. "The committee made mistakes" has an actor: the committee. It is in active voice.

Also, if the sentence has the actor after the action, as in "mistakes were made by the committee," it is still in passive voice. The reason is that active voice has the actor before the action. In your business writing, try to use active voice sentences most of the time.

 
1. Which of the following is (are) in active voice.
a) The plans were drawn up by the committee.
b) The managers met with all of them.
c) The data will be made available on Tuesday.
d) After all of the effort, we couldn't eliminate the error.
e) Maureen will pick up Arny on her way back from the meeting.



2. Which of the following is (are) in active voice?
a) Errors were found, but the accountant corrected them.
b) The accountant found errors and corrected them.
c) The accountant found errors, but they were corrected.
d) We found errors, but the accountant corrected them.
e) We found errors and corrected them.



3. Which of the following is (are) in active voice?
a) As we expected, the host came late.
b) The company's attorney declined to comment.
c) The cake wasn't delivered to the right address.
d) A "no comment" response was made by the attorney.
e) The pipefitter didn't make the casing tight enough.



4. Which of the following is (are) in active voice?
a) Our company was bought out by Acme Industries, Inc.
b) The chairman adjourned the meeting early.
c) These plans were drawn up months ago.
d) Without clear direction, much time was wasted trying to decide what to do.
e) In spite of our best efforts, the attendees didn't like the convention.



5. What must you do to make sentences active voice?
a) Use strong verbs.
b) State the actor.
c) Put the actor after "by," as in "by the manager."
d) Put the actor before the verb.
e) State the action close to the beginning.



6. Which of the following is (are) in active voice:
a) Jim gave us the wrong phone number.
b) Frank brought the product sample that was left for us to examine.
c) You should make this marketing effort successful.
d) The figures that we were given weren't accurate.
e) The trainees must learn to be patient.



7. Which of the following is (are) in active voice?
a) I could never understand why the company always delivered the products late.
b) Whatever the reason, these hinges weren't manufactured to specifications.
c) The training was almost cancelled by management.
d) The team helped make the project successful.
e) This trainee was certified as competent by the trainer, but she didn't learn the skills.








You have now finished the test



Please check your answers.
When you are sure you have finished, click on Submit