How to Keep Active Voice While Writing in the Past Tense

I recently wrote two personal essays for Next Avenue, and each contained multiple past-tense stories. Grammarly was nagging me non-stop about writing in active voice instead of passive voice.

So, I had to figure out how to keep an active voice while writing in the past tense. 

I had to do some research…

Here’s what I found.

4 helpful reminders to keep an active voice when writing in the past tense:

➡ When writing history, determine who was responsible for the idea, action, or event. 

➡ We can’t understand the past without knowing who was there.

➡ The subject is the doer, not the receiver.

➡ Passive (the receiver of the action) verbs confuse the reader.

Example:

Passive voice: My son was taken care of by my parents when he got sick.

Active voice: My parents took care of my son when he got sick.