There are two types of "voice" errors that occur:
- Using passive voice instead of active voice (This type of error frequently occurs in Improving Sentences Questions)
- The subject of the sentence (the person/thing doing the action) must come before the object of the sentence:
- Ex: "The fish was eaten for dinner by the cat" is in passive voice because the CAT (subject) is doing the EATING (action). The fish is the object, the thing being eaten
- The sentence should be rewritten The cat ate the fish for dinner.
- Sentences that use the passive construction are often very wordy and/or confusing. The correct answer will rewrite the sentence in active voice, and make the subject more clear from the beginning.
TIP: Passive voice errors can occur in the sentence itself, but also in the answer choices. An original sentence may have a different error, which is corrected in an answer choice that also uses passive voice. This technique, or correcting one error but introducing another, is commonly used by the Test Makers. Be aware of this and look out for answer choices that contain the passive voice so they can be eliminated.
- Switching "person" in the middle of the sentence (This type of error frequently occurs in Identifying Sentence Error Questions)
- There are 3 different grammatical "persons" in English
- First person: I, me, We
- Second person: You, You're
- Third person: He, She, They, One
- If a sentence begins in a particular person, it should not switch voices in the middle of the sentence
- Ex: I went to the store and they got some milk
- This is an error because it switches from the first person to the third person
- The sentence should read I went to the store and I got some milk
- Ex: If one wants to be smart, you should study a lot.
- This is an error because it switches from the third person "one" to the second person "you."
- The sentence should read: If one wants to be smart, he or she should study a lot
TIP: Often, the SAT will switch voice from one to you or they because people tend to miss that error and/or think that "he or she" is a wordy construction. Be watchful of this, because although "he or she" might be wordy, it is correct while "you" and "they" are not.
