Why Is It Important to Use the Passive Voice in Your Business Correspondence
The use of the passive voice in business emails is important because it helps to maintain a professional and objective tone. It shifts the focus away from the person performing the action towards the action itself, which can be useful in situations where assigning blame or highlighting an individual’s responsibility may be inappropriate or potentially cause conflict.
Additionally, the passive voice can help to simplify complex sentences and convey information in a clear and concise manner. This can be especially important in business communication, where the recipient may be busy or have a limited attention span.
By using the passive voice, the writer can also effectively communicate important information without creating a confrontational or personal tone, ensuring that the message is received and understood in the intended manner.
Here are a few examples of the use of passive voice in business emails:
- “The proposal has been reviewed and approved by the board.
(Active voice: “The board has reviewed and approved the proposal.”)
- “The deadline for the project has been extended to next Friday.”
(Active voice: “Next Friday has been set as the new deadline for the project.”)
- “A decision has been made to move forward with the new marketing campaign.”
(Active voice: “The new marketing campaign has been decided upon and will move forward.”)
- “The budget for the event has been allocated and expenses will be monitored closely.”
(Active voice: “Close monitoring of expenses has been planned, now that the budget for the event has been allocated.”)
Here is a chart which sums up the main differences between the active and the passive voices and provides example sentences in the most common tenses:
| The Tense | The Active Voice
(Subject + Verb) |
The Passive Voice
(Subject + to be + V3) |
| We use the active voice when the subject does the action of the verb in the sentence, as in:
“I am writing this summary right now.” |
The passive voice is used when the subject is acted upon, as in: “The summary is being written right now.”
You should use the passive voice when you’d like to emphasize the action itself and the doer of the action is irrelevant or distracting. Or when you’d like to avoid blaming someone in particular, especially in the business context.
|
|
| Past Simple | Sarah wrote a detailed email summarizing the meeting. | A detailed email summarizing the meeting was written.
|
| Present Perfect |
Sarah has already written a detailed email about the meeting.
|
An email has already been written about the meeting. |
| Present Progressive |
They are writing the email now.
|
An email is being written as we speak. |
| Present Simple | She writes at least 20 emails a day. |
At least 20 emails are written here on a daily basis.
|
| Future Simple | We will complete the report by tomorrow.
|
The report will be completed by tomorrow. |
These examples show how the passive voice can effectively communicate information in a neutral and professional manner, helping to maintain a positive and productive tone in business communications.
