Level 1 — Foundation · Clauses & the First Paragraph
Task 13: Choosing Active or Passive to Control a Sentence's Focus
Write the same event twice — once in active voice, once in passive — and decide, on purpose, which noun deserves to open the sentence.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this task, you should be able to:
- Write the same event as both an active sentence and a passive sentence without changing its core meaning
- Choose passive voice deliberately to put the receiver of an action in the sentence's opening position
- Decide, sentence by sentence, whether 'by + doer' is worth keeping or worth dropping
Introduction
Lesson 13 taught you to read a passive sentence and ask why the author put a particular noun at the front. Writing one is the reverse move: you already know both the event and the two ways to tell it — now you choose, on purpose, which one to write.
The Rule, for Writing
Core Concept
Start from Subject + be + V3. If your sentence's real point is who did it, write active: Doer + verb + receiver. If your sentence's real point is what happened to something, write passive: Receiver + be + V3 (+ by + doer). Add "by + doer" only when naming the doer actually helps the reader — drop it when the doer is obvious, unimportant, or simply less interesting than the result.
Example
Active, doer in focus: The terminal staff inspected every container before loading. Passive, receiver in focus: Every container was inspected before loading. Both sentences are true. The first is about what the staff did; the second is about what happened to the containers — and dropping "by the terminal staff" was a choice, not an accident.
Your Turn
Your Turn
Here is one event: A technician replaced the faulty sensor on Line 3 this morning. Write it as ONE active sentence with the technician in focus. Then write it as ONE passive sentence with the sensor in focus — decide yourself whether to keep "by the technician" or drop it, and be ready to explain why.
Vocabulary in Context
inspectverbformal
to look at something carefully to check its condition (পরিদর্শন করা)
Often with inspect the cargo, carefully inspect, inspect for damage
“Officers inspect every refrigerated container before it is loaded.”
faultyadjectiveneutral
not working correctly, because of a defect (ত্রুটিপূর্ণ)
Often with faulty equipment, faulty wiring, faulty component
“A faulty sensor caused the gate to stay closed.”
Model Answer
Show a model answer
Active: The technician replaced the faulty sensor on Line 3 this morning. Passive: The faulty sensor on Line 3 was replaced this morning. ("By the technician" is dropped here — once the sensor is fixed, who exactly replaced it matters far less than the fact that Line 3 is running again.)
Self-Check
Self-Check
- Does your active sentence open with the doer, and your passive sentence open with the receiver?
- Did your passive sentence use the correct "be + V3" form for its tense?
- Can you explain, in one sentence, why you kept or dropped "by the technician"?
- Did you write both sentences directly in English, without composing them in Bangla first?
Next: Writing 14 — Writing With Gerunds and Infinitives: building your own sentences with reading, to improve, and by practicing — three shapes readers usually only recognise, now yours to produce.