<p>I realize using excessive passive voice is never a good thing, but how damning is it to use a little of it in your essays/SoPs? There are some places and sentence structures that just have a more intelligent sound with passive voice, and are rather difficult to work around with active voice without ending up sounding trite, simple, and unintelligent.</p>
<p>Is use of a little passive voice ok?</p>
<p>Yes. Passive voice has its place. Its success depends on how (and how little) you use it.</p>
<p>how about these two sentences:</p>
<p>“This background in engineering has afforded me substantial experience working with environmental concerns and how they are shaped by engineering and economic constraints.”</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>“This experience has provided me intimate insight into not only Japanese society but also Japanese disposition, yielding me a rather unique perspective from which to approach my research interests once admitted to xxx”</p>
<p>Would you change these or would you consider these appropriate use?</p>
<p>FWIW in my 3.5 page SoP, I use passive voice in 5 sentences, or at least I can identify it in five sentences.</p>
<p>You don’t really want to ask me because I can tear sentences apart. </p>
<p>Both of those uses are fine. For other reasons, you might want to re-visit this part of one sentence: ". . .yielding me a rather unique perspective. . . . "</p>
<p>As I said, you probably don’t want to ask me. :)</p>
<p>How many schools allow a 3.5 page statement of purpose? I remember most of mine being one; two pages at most.</p>
<p>When used well, the passive voice is fine.</p>
<p>I would zone out reading either of those sentences; far too wordy to convey a simple point.</p>
<p>^ I agree.</p>
<p>This one is for UCSD. They have no limit, but encourage it be limited to 2-3 pages. I’ve gone through now and done considerable shortening and tightening, and tried not to be so verbose, and I’ve now got it down to under 3 pages, maybe 2.8 or so and it’s pretty tight. I might try and shorten it a few more lines just to really make it concise. Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>passive voice can be used correctly, but it can almost never be used in a way that isn’t totally boring. and it doesn’t make someone’s work sound more intelligent. it makes his or her work sound like it’s trying to sound like it’s more intelligent.</p>
<p>you need your SOP to catch your readers’ attention and hold it. a sentence here or there is fine if you can’t figure out how to say what you want to without it, but it’s not great writing. i’d avoid it if i were you, but i’m in a field of the humanities that puts a pretty high premium on good writing.</p>
<p>(i realize none of what i just wrote is good writing.)</p>
<p>don’t worry as much about passive voice, concentrate on specificity. Your second sentence is better because you are actually making a point.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about shortening if you don’t have to, just make the sentences simpler. Believe me, it is my problem too, I write long-ass sentences and make them all complicated and… yeah it becomes this! << I thing being clear and to the point works much better.</p>