What’s on the Active and Passive Voice poster
ACTIVE against PASSIVE, side by side.
- ACTIVE: The subject does the action
- ACTIVE: "The dog chased the ball."
- ACTIVE: Shorter and clearer
- ACTIVE: Says who is responsible
- ACTIVE: Use it by default
- PASSIVE: The subject receives the action
- PASSIVE: "The ball was chased by the dog."
- PASSIVE: Longer, often vaguer
- PASSIVE: Can hide who did it
- PASSIVE: Use it when the doer is unknown or unimportant
- "Mistakes were made" is passive precisely because it avoids saying who made them. Tha…
Passive is right in science writing — the method matters more than who performed it.
Questions about the Active and Passive Voice poster
- What’s on the Active and Passive Voice poster?
- ACTIVE against PASSIVE, side by side. ACTIVE: The subject does the action; ACTIVE: "The dog chased the ball."; ACTIVE: Shorter and clearer; ACTIVE: Says who is responsible; ACTIVE: Use it by default; PASSIVE: The subject receives the action; PASSIVE: "The ball was chased by the dog."; PASSIVE: Longer, often vaguer; PASSIVE: Can hide who did it; PASSIVE: Use it when the doer is unknown or unimportant; "Mistakes were made" is passive precisely because it avoids saying who made them. Tha…. Passive is right in science writing — the method matters more than who performed it.
- Who is the Active and Passive Voice poster for?
- Active and Passive Voice is filed under 7th Grade (ages 12–13), so it matches what that year asks a child to remember. It is equally useful to an older student revisiting literacy, and to the parent or teacher answering the question at the kitchen table.
- When should you use the Active and Passive Voice poster?
- Add 'by zombies' after the verb. If it makes sense, the sentence is passive. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Active and Passive Voice belongs on the wall where that literacy work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Active and Passive Voice?
- Argument Essay Frame, Citing Textual Evidence and Literary Devices sit alongside Active and Passive Voice in the 7th Grade set. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Argument Essay FrameCiting Textual EvidenceLiterary Devices
- Is the Active and Passive Voice poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Active and Passive Voice downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the 7th Grade set. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Active and Passive Voice poster print at?
- Active and Passive Voice is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Active and Passive Voice loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Active and Passive Voice on the same wall.
Browse every 7th Grade poster, or start from the full catalogue.