<p>do your teachers bug you about this? for ap exams, does it really matter that much? i used passive voice a little bit on ap euro due to time constraints, but i did just fine on the essays. my euro teacher freaked out if you used passive voice even once, but my english teachers never really care(d)</p>
<p>“Don’t use passive voice” is just a general guideline. Sometimes active voice sounds better than passive, and sometimes it’s the other way around. I can’t see how it matters in the least. Writing is an art, not a science.</p>
<p>yes, i tried making a similar argument, but to no avail. i don’t see why it’s bad ALL the time. but even once in a paper is apparently unacceptable (like my euro teacher would have stripped me of points if she saw that last sentence)</p>
<p><em>shrug</em></p>
<p>Well, that’s stupid.</p>
<p>Teachers generally advocate using active voice over passive voice because it’s typically considered the right way to do it most of the time (and for most of the writing that you’re doing in high school). These are often the rules that you’re expected to know and be proficient with on standardized or state exams, or you may be expected in higher levels to be proficient in writing in a certain way. They’re trying to teach you rules and the basics, and once you prove that you are comfortable with the rules (that you can write an academic essay with proper tense and voice, under time constraints, like you’re AP Euro essay), then you can explore different styles of writing. Typically, that’s what you might do as a college student or beyond, but generally, with regards to academic writing, there is a certain standard and style that you’re expected to use and follow. What that style is depends on your field and what you’re writing, but you’ll be expected to follow it, regardless on if you agree with it or not.</p>
<p>You might think it’s fine to use passive voice in a certain situation, but it may be stronger if you use active voice. It depends on the situation. Just use active voice when your euro teacher. Time constraints really shouldn’t have anything to do with whether you’re using active or passive voice. Perhaps, that’s just the style your euro teacher prefers.</p>
<p>sure, that makes sense.
but thinking my way around sentences had to have cost me like an extra 20 min per all my essays last year</p>
<p>Perhaps, you need more practice at writing essays in the format that’s requested of you. It shouldn’t take you 20 minutes to switch from passive voice to active voice. With more practice, you may be able to start thinking in active voice while you are writing your essay, so it’s more instinctive, rather than a tedious process that you have to force yourself to do.</p>
<p>well i did it for a whole year, but it’s still kind of annoying. and it doesn’t take 20 min per sentence lol, more like for all the sentences in my essay, overall. of course, that depends on how long the essay was, but i think somewhere between 10 - 20 min was added</p>