Once upon a time, I edited sports copy. I explained the difference between active voice and passive voice to one reporter several times, but it didn't stick.
"You keep saying my writing is passive," he said.
"No," I responded. "I said you use passive voice a lot."
He then pointed out supposed examples of active voice.
"Here, I wrote about a coach arguing with the referee," he said. "That's pretty active voice. I also wrote about fans getting upset with the ref's call. That's also active voice. And here's a sentence about the bench-clearing brawl. That's active voice, too."
"Active voice doesn't mean a person has to impale someone with a wrench," I replied. "Again, an example of passive voice is, 'Three points were scored by John Smith.' Changed to active voice, it would read, 'John Smith scored three points.' Active voice is more concise."
Fortunately for the editors, the reporter used mostly active voice in his stories after that.
