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.