The passive
Academic writing uses more passives than normal writing.Try to use some passive sentences to get a better mark. For example:
A dip in sales can be seen around 2010. [not ·we can see a dip in sales around
2010'.]
The passive is useful because we don't need to say the subject of the verb. This means we don't have to say who is doing the action. For example:
The proportion of workers is predicted to rise between 2020 and 2030.
This can be useful for IELTS Task 1 because IELTS diagrams don't give a source for their information. For example, you can't say:
The London School of Economics predicts that the proportion of workers will rise between 2020 and 2030.
If you don't know who said something, it sounds better to use the passive. Otherwise you have to say:
Someone predicts that the proportion of workers will rise between 2020 and 2030.
This doesn't sound very academic, so use the passive instead.
Note: It is incorrect to say 'The graph predicts that ...'. A graph can't predict anything. Only a human can 'predict'.
Another reason for using the passive is to highlight some information by putting it first. Here's an example:
The company sold 500,000 cars in 1995. [Active voice]
The important news is '500,000 cars'.If you change this to a passive sentence,the important news is first.This makes the sentence more interesting.
500,000 cars were sold in 1995. [Passive voice]
Finally, sometimes the subject of the verb is so obvious that it sounds silly if you say it. For example:
The police caught more criminals in 2003 than 2005.
Only police can catch criminals - it's obvious! It's better to say:
More criminals were caught in 2003 than 2005.
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