


When you submit your details to get a quote, you will be sent a discount voucher along with the email. To help you easily apply the active and passive voice and other grammar principles correctly, Elsevier Author Services has now launched a Mini Program on WeChat. The bottom line is to get your message across to the reader most clearly and accurately no matter the voice. However, in the methods section, the passive voice works better because the steps you took to carry out your research matter more than who conducted them. For instance, the active voice is good for the introduction, results, and discussion sections of the manuscript where you are laying out complex concepts. Each voice plays its own role in making a manuscript the best that it can be. This does not mean that the passive voice must be done away with entirely. Clarity and simplicity are becoming the focus of journal editors and reviewers, and they’re increasingly encouraging manuscript writing in the active voice. In recent times, however, this is changing. But since the latter is more impersonal than the former, academic journals have traditionally favored it. Sentences in the active voice are generally clearer and more concise than those in the passive voice, which are typically longer and wordier.

When should I use the active voice and when the passive? Notice that the object ( message transmission) is mentioned first, followed by the action ( has been achieved), and then the subject ( Scientists), which is optional because it is understood. The previous example sentence in the passive voice will read: E fficient quantum-encrypted message transmission has finally been achieved ( by scientists). The subject is often implied and needn’t be mentioned. Passive voiceĪ sentence written in the passive voice focuses on the object or action being performed by the subject. Here, the subject of the sentence ( Scientists) performed an action ( achieved) that impacted an object ( message transmission). Take for example: Scientists have finally achieved efficient quantum-encrypted message transmission. These are fundamental to sentence structure and formation and play a great role in determining the clarity and flow of a written piece.īut what are voices and when do you use them in an academic manuscript? Active voiceĪ sentence written in the active voice emphasizes the doer, or subject, of an action, who in turn affects an object.

Active vs passive voice in research writing professional#
In the editing service, professional editors make sure the manuscript applies important grammar principles, such as the active and passive voice, correctly. According to another analysis, language editing before submitting a manuscript can raise its chances of acceptances by up to 24%.Įlsevier Author Services offer editing and translation packages that transform manuscripts into quality publications without error. According to an analysis of 100 manuscripts in 2016, the most common mistakes are grammatical errors (49%), unclear language (15%), and an improper choice of words (10%). In a survey on academic publishing issues, covering over 7000 researchers, a whopping 76% of academics found writing a manuscript in English to be a challenge. Writing manuscripts in English can often be a struggle for scientists who are not native English speakers.
