Exercise: The active and passive voices in news

Many news stories are about action. This exercise looks at how journalist use the active voice to capture that action in their writing and seize the attention of the audience.

Welcome to this Media Helping Media (MHM) exercise about the active and passive voices in news, which is published on MHM. You are invited to complete the exercise either on your own or with a colleague. Please ensure you read the article above before proceeding.

MHM exercises are designed to help those who are new to journalism learn important skills and then test what they know against fictional scenarios. The articles on which the exercises are based have been created from the experience of journalists who have shared their knowledge in order to help others learn the fundamental principles of robust public service journalism.

The first requirement of any piece of journalism is that it should be accurate. Although this is an exercise involving fictitious material, not for publication, trainees must take everything they are told in the exercise to be factual and they must stick to those facts. If one thing they produce in the exercise is inconsistent with those facts, their whole work is discredited.

The exercise

This exercise focuses on the importance of using the active voice to ensure clarity and accountability in news reporting, while also recognising when the passive voice is the more effective choice for the reader.

Scenario: A local council has released a statement regarding the sudden closure of a community library. The statement says:

“It was decided by the committee that the library doors would be closed indefinitely. Mistakes were made in the budget planning process, and regret is felt for the inconvenience caused to residents.”

Task 1: Identifying the actors

• Your first task is to identify the actors (the people or organisations performing the actions) in the scenario above.
• Determine who made the decision and who made the mistakes.
• If the information is missing, unclear or hidden, write down what questions a journalist should ask to ensure accountability (the responsibility of an organisation or individual to explain their actions).

Task 2: Rewriting for impact

• Using the active voice, rewrite the first two sentences of the council’s statement.
• Your goal is to make the writing shorter, stronger, and more direct.
• Ensure you clearly state who is responsible for the closure and the budget errors.
• If you have to invent a specific committee name for this practice, ensure it is entirely fictional.

Task 3: Strategic use of the passive voice

• Imagine a famous local landmark, The Blue Bridge, has been damaged in a storm.
• Write a short, two-sentence news update about this event.
• In the first sentence, use the passive voice to ensure the landmark (a recognisable natural or man-made feature used for navigation or identification) is the focus.
• In the second sentence, use the active voice to describe the council’s response.

Learning outcomes

The purpose of this exercise is to help you distinguish between the active and passive voices and understand their impact on news writing. By the end of this exercise, you should be able to:

• Identify when the passive voice is being used to evade (avoid or escape from) accountability.
• Rewrite passive sentences into the active voice to create more engaging and direct news copy.
• Select the passive voice strategically when the subject of the action is more important than the actor.

Self-assessment quiz

1. What is the primary advantage of using the active voice in a news story?
   1. It makes the sentences longer and more descriptive.
   2. It is shorter, stronger, and more direct.
   3. It is the only grammatically correct way to write a news story.
   4. It helps to hide the person responsible for an action.
2. When is it most appropriate to use the passive voice in journalism?
   1. When a politician wants to avoid taking the blame.
   2. When you want to make a story sound more formal and academic.
   3. When the recipient of the action is more important than the actor.
   4. Every time you are writing a headline.
3. Why might a politician use the phrase “mistakes were made”?
   1. To clearly identify who is at fault.
   2. To ensure the public understands the exact timeline of events.
   3. To create ambiguity (a quality of being open to more than one interpretation) and avoid personal responsibility.
   4. Because it is the most active way to describe a failure.
4. In the sentence “The thief was arrested by the police”, what is the voice being used?
   1. The active voice.
   2. The passive voice.
   3. The descriptive voice.
   4. The objective voice.
5. Which of the following sentences uses a strong verb in the active voice?
   1. The decision was taken by the board.
   2. A warning was issued by the weather office.
   3. The mayor resigned following the scandal.
   4. It was felt that the project should end.

Answers

1. b) It is shorter, stronger, and more direct.
2. c) When the recipient of the action is more important than the actor (e.g., “The President has been injured”).
3. c) To create ‘ambiguity’ and avoid personal responsibility.
4. b) The passive voice (the subject ‘the thief’ is receiving the action).
5. c) The mayor resigned following the scandal (‘resigned’ is a strong, active verb).

Related material

The active and passive voices in news